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﻿Title: Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities
Author: Jeans, J. Stephen (James Stephen), 1846-1913
Language: English
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WESTERN WORTHIES:
_A GALLERY_
of
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SKETCHES
_of_
WEST OF SCOTLAND CELEBRITIES.
_By J. STEPHEN JEANS_,
EDITOR OF THE "EVENING STAR."
* * * * *
Glasgow:
PUBLISHED AT _THE STAR_ OFFICE, ARGYLE STREET.
MDCCCLXXII.
_PREFACE._
The author does not consider that the following pages require any
apology for their appearance. They are given to the world with a
two-fold object--the first being that of gratifying an increasing and
perfectly legitimate anxiety on the part of the public to know more of
the antecedents--the struggles, and the triumphs--of the men whom they
recognize as leaders; and the other, that of reminding a younger
generation, from a contemplation of the lives of great men, that they
too, may leave behind them
"Footprints on the sands of Time."
The scope of the present work renders it impossible to do full justice
to any one of the men who have been selected; and on this account the
author has made his Sketches more biographical than critical, leaving
the reader to reflect on facts rather than on opinions.
To become food for biographers and worms was the two-fold evil of which
Rachel spoke shortly before her death. So far as the former terror is
concerned, the men who are pourtrayed in these pages have little to
fear. Every care has been taken to secure accuracy of detail, most of
the Sketches having been revised by those whom they more directly
concern; and the author's aim has been to be just without severity, and
truthful without personality. Humanity is so prone to error that the
best men have their failings as well as their virtues; but while it is
not desirable to extenuate the former, the biographer is still less
warranted in setting them down in malice. Hence the writer has
endeavoured to criticise in a kindly and temperate spirit, and to hold
up virtues for imitation rather than errors for avoidance.
When these Sketches originally appeared in the columns of the journal
with which the writer is connected, it was never intended that they
should assume a more permanent form. It was only after witnessing the
great amount of interest which they evoked, that he was induced to yield
to pressing solicitations by trying to convert what was only a
terminable lease into one renewable for ever.
One word more. Since the sketch of Dr. Norman Macleod was in print, that
genial, versatile, and accomplished Divine has gone over to the Great
Majority. On Sunday forenoon, the 16th of June, he died rather suddenly,
although, as he had been ailing for some time previously, his end was
not altogether unexpected. In the public prints of both England and
Scotland, the tributes paid to his worth and ability have more than
justified all that will be found in these pages. From Royalty downwards,
his demise has produced a sadness "that passeth show." _Requiescat in
pace!_
J. S. J.
_Glasgow, June 20, 1872._
_CONTENTS._
PAGE
The Duke of Argyll, 9
The Right Hon. H. A. Bruce, 16
Sheriff H. G. Bell, 23
Mr. Robert Dalglish, M.P., 36
Mr. William Graham, M.P., 42
Mr. George Anderson, M.P., 47
Sir James Campbell, 57
Mr. James Young, 63
Mr. George Burns, 71
Mr. James Baird, 79
Sir William Thomson, 88
Principal Barclay, 95
Professor Rankine, 101
Professor Allen Thomson, 109
Professor John Caird, 117
Rev. Dr. Norman Macleod, 123
Rev. Dr. Robert Buchanan, 134
Mr. Robert Napier, 143
Mr. James Watson, 152
Rev. Dr. William Anderson, 159
Rev. Dr. John Ker, 165
Rev. Dr. Eadie, 172
Mr. Daniel Macnee, R.S.A., 178
Mr. Thomas Corbett, 182
Mr. Edward S. Gordon, M.P., 191
WESTERN WORTHIES.
THE DUKE OF ARGYLL.
For its size and population Scotland has been remarkably prolific in the
rearing of eminent statesmen, soldiers, and _litterateurs_. Viewed with
respect to its relative importance as an item in the map of Europe, it
has likewise a most chequered and eventful history--a history to which,
in various essentials, no counterpart can be found elsewhere. Chiefly,
however, has "the land of mountain and of flood" bulked largely in the
records of the world, from the stern and heroic character and
statesmenlike tendencies of its titled nobility, the lights and shadows
of whose characters, as they are developed in the historic page, go a
long way towards conferring upon Scotland the distinguishing qualities
that have made her famous. As this is not intended to be even a
bird's-eye view of Scottish history, we may have said enough by way of
introducing the reader to one of the most noble and illustrious of the
hereditary peerage of Scotland. Every schoolboy is more or less familiar
with the annals of a race which has been identified through many ages
with the interests--political, social, and commercial--of the West of
Scotland. The Clan Campbell have been stigmatised as haughty,
aggressive, and ambitious. The soft impeachment may be justly merited.
Throughout the most exciting and eventful crises of their country's
history, the Campbells have always borne a distinguished and conspicuous
part, both in the field of battle and in the Councils of State. Unlike
not a few families and clans who can boast of a lineage almost if not
quite as ancient and noble as their own, their name and fame are not "to
hastening ills a prey." The lapse of years has not dimmed the lustre of
their achievements, or caused them to lie upon their oars inactive and
inglorious. The present head of their clan--the Duke of Argyll--has in
his day and generation been as distinguished as any of his more
formidable ancestry. Their prospective head--the Marquis of Lorne--has
passed the Rubicon of Royal etiquette, allied himself with a Princess of
the Blood, and gives promise of a most useful and distinguished career.
The clan can further claim for themselves six members of the British
Peerage, and no less than twenty-two Baronets, nearly every one of whom
has been raised from the ranks for conspicuous merit in one sphere or
another. In almost every relation of life, the clan has had honour and
glory reflected upon it through some of its members; and, in
consideration of its past, present, and future importance, the possessor
of the name of Campbell may feel a justifiable pride in the stock from
which he springs.
George Douglas Campbell, the present head of the Ducal House of Argyll,
unites in himself many of the most estimable qualities that enabled his
ancestors, apart from the mere accident of birth, to achieve greatness.
That he is one of the most exalted of Scotland's aristocracy, a great
territorial magnate, and entitled to take a high place in the Council of
the nation, are facts external and independent of his own intrinsic
merits. But the same remark does not apply to the Duke's rare diplomatic
and literary abilities, to the sageness of his wisdom, to the maturity
end value of his experience, and to the kindly qualities of his heart.
Pope spoke of an ancestor of his Grace as--
"Argyll, the State's whole thunder born to wield.
And shake alike the Senate and the field;"
but if the poet had applied his Muse to describe the living
representative of the noble House he could justly have bestowed upon him
a much greater meed of praise. It is a rare conjunction to find one who
is born great, seek also to achieve greatness; but this His Grace has
done in an eminent degree. The adventitious circumstances of his birth
placed him in a position only a few removes from Royalty itself, but not
content with mere physical greatness, and realising that "the mind's the
standard of the man," he has applied himself diligently to the
acquisition of wisdom, until both in the domain of politics and in the
still more cosmopolitan sphere of _belles lettres_ he has, perhaps, made
himself more conspicuous by his sheer native worth than any other member
of the aristocracy of Scotland. Intimately associated from his earliest
years with the civil and ecclesiastical affairs of his native country,
he has been enabled, in his time, to do the State some service; and when
the "history of Scotland in the nineteenth century" shall come to be
written, the Duke of Argyll will be mentioned with honour and grateful
regard. On these, and many other grounds that might be quoted, we are
prepared to justify the incorporation in the present series of articles
of such a name and of such a life--a name that is as familiar in the
Church Courts as in the Councils of the nation, and a life that has been
singularly pure, useful, and exemplary.
Born April, 30, 1823, his Grace is the second son of the sixth Duke of
Argyll, by his marriage with Joan, daughter of John Glassel, Esq., his
father's second wife. The present Duke is the thirty-second Knight of
Lochow, and the thirtieth Campbell in the direct line of descent. He
showed from an early age the remarkable aptitude for business and the
literary capacity which have since distinguished him in so eminent a
degree, his first work being published before he was 20. While Marquis
of Lorne he took an active part in the great controversy relating to
patronage in the Presbyterian Church of Scotland, which culminated in
the Disruption of 1843. His Grace was one of the first to denounce the
obnoxious system of patronage, and he lent his great influence and high
social position to the party of which Dr. Chalmers was the recognised
head, giving it an importance which it might never otherwise have
acquired. But his Grace did more than aid the Secession by his social
influence; he also rendered yeoman service to that movement by his able
pen. One of his first productions was a _brochure_ "On the Duty and
Necessity of Immediate Legislative Interposition on behalf of the Church
of Scotland as determined by considerations of Constitutional Law." In
this publication the writer gave an historical view of the Church of
Scotland, particularly in reference to its constitutional power in
matters ecclesiastical. In another pamphlet, written in the course of
the same year, and entitled "A Letter to the Rev. Thomas Chalmers, D.D.,
on the present position of Church affairs in Scotland, and the causes
which have led to it," his Grace vindicated the right of the Church to
legislate for itself, condemned the movement then in progress among
certain members of the General Assembly to establish the Free Church by
a secession from the Establishment, and expressed his dissent from Dr.
Chalmers' view that "lay patronage and the integrity of the spiritual
independence of the Church has been proved to be, like oil and water,
immiscible." In an essay entitled "Presbytery Examined," published in
1848, the Duke entered upon a critical and historical review of the
ecclesiastical history of Scotland since the Reformation, which was
favourably criticised at the time, and received from every theological
party in Scotland a good deal of attention. His "Reign of Law," may,
however, be considered his _chef d'oeuvre_ as a literary effort. First
contributed to the pages of _Good Words_, the "Reign of Law" was
re-published in a separate form in 1866, and since then it has enjoyed a
large sale and a high reputation.
As showing his unflagging industry and his love of letters, it is worth
mentioning that he still contributes from time to time to the leading
magazines of the day. As a rule, his articles receive the place of
honour. They may not be so profoundly metaphysical as the contributions
of Professor Maurice, neither are they so appallingly scientific as the
propaganda of Huxley; but they are at least as entertaining, as
instructive, as able as the best literary efforts of our most popular
writers. One of the Duke's most recent contributions, which appeared in
the _Contemporary Review_ for January last, on "Hibernicisms in
Philosophy," shows that to Sidney Smith's stale joke about the
obtuseness of Scotchmen there is at least one illustrious exception. It
is one of the best things of its kind that has ever appeared in a
magazine that can command the greatest literary talent of the day.
The Duke of Argyll's political career has been long and illustrious. He
first took office as Lord Privy Seal under Lord Aberdeen's
administration in 1852. After Lord Palmerston had assumed the reins of
Government he was continued in this place until, in 1855, he exchanged
it for the office of Postmaster-General. In the following year he went
out of office; but in 1867 he was again induced to accept the Lord Privy
Seal, an appointment which he continued to hold until 1859. In 1860 he
was restored to the slightly more lucrative (there is a difference in
salary of £500) but much more responsible and useful appointment of
Postmaster-General. When the present Administration was formed, the Duke
was elected to the office of Secretary of State for India, the
Under-Secretary being Mr. Grant Duff, the member for the Elgin Burghs,
than whom no man alive has a more thorough acquaintance with Indian
affairs.
In 1851 the Duke was elected Chancellor of the University of St.
Andrews, and in 1854 he was elected Rector of Glasgow University. In
September, 1855, His Grace presided over the twenty-fifth meeting of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science, which was held that
year in Glasgow. On that occasion, as well as at other times throughout
his career, His Grace displayed scientific knowledge and antiquarian
research of more than ordinary depth; and his remarks on the subjects
brought under discussion were listened to by the _savants_ with the
utmost deference.
The Duke of Argyll is married to Lady Elizabeth Georgina, second
daughter of George Greville, second Duke of Sutherland, by whom he has
issue five sons and seven daughters. The eldest son, who has recently
allied himself to Royalty, gives promise, as we have already indicated,
of possessing in an eminent degree the talents that have so much
distinguished his ancestors. Both the Marquis of Lorne and his Royal
partner are extremely popular, and the alliance which has been
consummated amid the fervent aspirations of a whole nation, is bound to
raise still higher the influence of the ducal family of Argyll.
Alexander, the second son of the Duke, was born in 1846, and married, in
1869, Miss Jane Sabella Callendar, ward of his father, and daughter of
the late James Henry Callendar, Esq. of Craigpark, Stirlingshire. The
only other married member of the Duke's family is Edith, his first
daughter, who was espoused by Earl Percy, the eldest son and heir of the
Duke of Northumberland.
For the benefit of the curious in such matters we may mention that the
Duke's titles are, by writ 1445, Baron Campbell; 1457, Earl of Argyll;
1570, Baron of Lorne; by Royal charter, 1701, Duke of Argyll; Marquis of
Lorne and Kintyre; Earl of Campbell and Cowal; Viscount of Lochow and
Glenila; Baron Inveraray, Mull, Morven, and Tory, in the Peerage of
Scotland; 19th December, 1766, Baron Sundridge of Croombank; May 4,
1776, Baron Hamilton, in the Peerage of England; Hereditary Master of
the Queen's Household; Keeper of Dunoon, Dunstaffnage, and Carrick
Castles; Heritable Lord-Lieutenant of Argyllshire.
The literature of the Herald's College sets forth that the arms of
Argyle are--Quarterly, 1st and 4th, Girony of eight pieces topaz and
diamond for Campbell; 2d and 3d, pearl, a lymphad, or old-fashioned ship
with one mast, close sails, and oars in action; a diamond with flag and
pennants flying; ruby for the Lordship of Lorne; crest on a wreath, a
boar's head, couped proper, topaz. Supporters, two lions guardant, ruby.
Motto--"Ne Obliviscaris." Behind the arms there are two honourable
badges in saltire, which his Grace's ancestors have borne a long time,
as Great Masters of the King's Household and Justiciaries of Scotland.
The first is a battern topaz, same of thistles, emerald, ensigned with
an imperial crown proper, and thereon the crest of Scotland, which is a
lion sejant guardian ruby, crowned with the like crown he sits on,
having in his dexter paw a sword proper, the pommel and hilt, topaz; and
in the sinister a sceptre of the last. The other badge is a sword, as
that in the lion's paw.
The Duke is proprietor of the greater part of Argyllshire--a county
having an area of 2,432,000 acres, of which only 308,000 are under
cultivation. The greatest breadth of the mainland is about 115 miles;
and from the windings of the numerous bays and creeks, with which the
land is everywhere indented, the county is supposed to have more than
600 miles of sea coast. His chief seats are--Inverary Castle, on the
banks of Lochfyne; Roseneath Castle, Dumbartonshire; Longniddry,
Haddingtonshire; Halnaker, Sussex; and Argyle House, Camden Hill,
London.
THE RIGHT HON. H. A. BRUCE.
The Right Hon. Henry Austin Bruce is a native of Wales. He was born at
Duffryn, Aberdare, Glamorganshire, and is both by birth and training a
thorough Cambrian. His father, who is still living, was for several
years Stipendiary Magistrate at Merthyr, and once contested that borough
unsuccessfully with Sir John Guest. He was originally a Mr. Knight--a
patronymic which, in 1805, he changed to Bruce, and afterwards, in 1837,
to Pryce. The Member for Renfrewshire is, therefore, described as the
second son of John Bruce Pryce, Esq., of Duffryn, St. Nicholas,
Glamorganshire, by Sarah, the second daughter of the Rev. Hugh Austin,
Rector of St. Peter's, in Barbadoes. Paternally, he is a nephew of the
late Lord-Justice Knight Bruce, who was spared to see him attain the
dignity of Privy Councillor, but not long enough to witness his
admission to the rank of a Cabinet Minister. It may be added, for the
purpose of completing these domestic details, that his
great-grandfather, Mr. Bruce of Kennet, was High Sheriff of Glamorgan
more than 150 years ago; and, further, that he himself has been twice
married, his first wife (to whom he was married in 1846, but who died in
1852) being Annabella, the only daughter of Richard Beadon, Esq., of
Clifton, Gloucestershire; and his second wife, to whom he was married in
1854, being Norah, the youngest daughter of the late Lieutenant-General
Sir William Napier, K.C.B., the author of that matchless military
narrative, the "History of the Peninsular War," and distinguished also
as the brother of the heroic conqueror of Scinde. The reader will thus
perceive that the Member for Renfrewshire, who might be supposed from
his patronymic to be a Scotchman, is not even connected closely by
family ties with this part of the Island. His position, however, as the
member for Renfrewshire, and his consequent intimate connection with the
West of Scotland, may excuse his appearance in these pages.
In 1837, when he was only 22 years of age, Mr. Bruce was called to the
bar. He practised at the Chancery bar, and attended the Oxford Circuit
for two years. He withdrew from practice in 1843, but still retained his
name on the rolls of Lincoln's Inn. In 1847, four years after this
withdrawal, he received the appointment of Stipendiary Magistrate at
Merthyr-Tydvil and Aberdare, the office previously held by his father,
and for a period of more than five years he presided at the Police
Courts of those towns. From this office he retired in the December of
1852, when he was elected Member for the Merthyr boroughs, the seat
having become vacant by the death of that Sir John Guest whom his father
had unsuccessfully opposed many years previously. Mr. Bruce has all
along manifested a deep interest in the affairs of his own
neighbourhood. He was Deputy-Chairman of Quarter Sessions in his native
county of Glamorganshire, and he was also Chairman of the Vale of Neath
Railway, Captain of the Glamorganshire Rifle Volunteers, and fourth
Charity Commissioner of England and Wales.
Mr. Bruce retained his seat for Merthyr without interruption for a
period of seventeen years. He had been ten years in the House of Commons
when, in the November of 1862, he was nominated to office by Lord
Palmerston; and it is worthy of remark that he was then appointed
Under-Secretary of the very department over which he now presides--the
post which was conferred the other day by Mr. Gladstone on the young and
promising Member for Stroud. Mr. Winterbotham has not had to serve as
long a political and administrative apprenticeship as his chief; for at
the early age of twenty-seven, and after a Parliamentary career of only
two years, he has leapt into the office which Mr. Bruce did not procure
till he was twenty years older and a Member of ten years' standing.
This significant fact seems to "point a moral." It shows that there is
now-a-days a better chance for the man who is capable for an important
political post, despite his circumstances and antecedents. Mr.
Winterbotham is as staunch a Liberal and as pronounced a Nonconformist
as any of his ancestors; and yet, as we have seen, he is appointed at
twenty-seven by Mr. Gladstone to an office which Lord Palmerston did not
bestow upon Mr. Bruce until the latter was verging on fifty; and it is
not at all improbable that Lord Palmerston, when he made the appointment
in 1862, took credit to himself for stretching a point in favour of a
laborious and deserving man?
Mr. Bruce had been Under-Secretary at the Home Office for about a
year-and-a-half when he was appointed Vice-President of the Committee of
Council on Education. This office he held for more than two years. His
tenure of it came to a close in 1866, when Lord Derby (or rather
Derby-cum-Disraeli) returned to power. It was during these two years, in
which he devoted himself to the subject of education, that he made the
most impressive appearance which any portion of his career has yet
presented either to the House of Commons or to the country. Though a
nominee of Lord Palmerston, and like his patron anything but an advanced
Liberal, he displayed an apparent breadth of view and an earnestness of
purpose in his new sphere of Ministerial labour which were exceedingly
creditable to him. Some of his speeches on education were admirable, and
their tone may be guessed from the fact that they made him a favourite
at the time with such organs of public opinion as Mr. Miall's
_Nonconformist_.
It has been argued that Mr. Bruce had not the elevated motives which
must inspire a thoroughly successful minister of education; that he was
still the police magistrate in his ideas; and that he wished to call in
the schoolmaster to aid in the repression of crime. But it is only fair
to add that he never said a word to show that he did not value education
for itself, and in his own locality he has been a constant patron of
Mechanics' and other educational institutions. Again, it has been said
that his rejection by the house-holders of Merthyr at the general
election, indicated that he had not really succeeded in winning the
confidence of the working classes. But there are other circumstances to
account for this that ought not to be lost sight of. The constituency
was suddenly increased from 1390 to 15,500, two-thirds of whom could
neither read nor write. They chose, with great judgment, Mr. Richard, an
eminent Nonconformist; with less judgment, Mr. Fothergill, an
ironmaster, who had been conspicuous for the manner in which he had
enforced "Truck," and opposed education. A new constituency naturally
chose new members. But nearly 6,000 voted for Mr. Bruce, including, with
very few exceptions, every man of education in the borough. One
circumstance that was prejudicial to Mr. Bruce's interest, was his
refusal to support the Ballot. Up to 1868 he had never voted either for
or against that measure; but during the long contest which preceded the
election of November, 1868, he saw much to recommend the Ballot, and to
weaken his objections to it. Therefore, when he stood for Renfrewshire,
on the death of Captain Spiers, he declared his devotion to the Ballot
unsolicited.
Of the success of Mr. Bruce's administration at the Home Office,
different and conflicting opinions are inevitably entertained. The post
is one of great importance. Its holder stands above every other
Secretary of State. He is the Minister who follows next after the First
Lord of the Treasury. He is virtually the governor of Great Britain. But
really the Home Secretary is not a man to be envied. He has a thousand
things to decide which, decide them how he may, are sure to bring about
his ears a nest of stinging critical hornets. He is responsible for so
many things that his name is sure to be in the papers every day, and the
notices of his words and actions are no less sure to be in the majority
of instances unfavourable. Truly, it is a "fierce light" which beats
upon the Home Secretary. It is a fine thing in its way to be a Cabinet
Minister; but we can imagine some more enviable situations than the one
which is at present occupied by the member for Renfrewshire. No doubt he
gained the seat for that county by virtue of his position at the Home
Office; but the same distinction has also made him one of the
best-abused men of his day. The articles of almost savage ferocity which
have been hurled against Mr. Bruce by the metropolitan newspapers would
make, if brought together, one of the largest books in the world. He is
assailed in books and pamphlets as well as in the newspapers. "Who could
conscientiously envy Mr. Bruce?" asks a pungent critic who has recently
been showering a series of "Sketches" upon the town, which have caused
rather a sensation at Westminster. "Was there ever such an unmitigated
mistake in any Cabinet as that man? He has proved himself weaker even
than Mr. Walpole, and that was difficult." On every hand we hear it
remarked that Mr. Bruce's solitary act of legislation has been the one
relating to the London cabs, and even that is said to be an utter
failure. It is true that, from no fault of the Home Secretary, but from
political exigencies, Home Office Bills, being of a social and
administrative and not of a political character, have been thrust aside.
They have been obliged to give way to such measures as the Irish Church
and Land Bills, Education, Army Organization, and the Ballot. As for the
latter question, Mr. Bruce spontaneously handed it over to Mr. Forster,
believing that it would be better treated by an old advocate than by a
recent convert. In such small space of time as he could command,
however, Mr. Bruce has carried the Habitual Criminals Act, which, in its
proved results, has been the most successful measure for the repression
of crime passed during the last thirty years. He has also successfully
dealt with the difficult subject of Trades' Unions, and he has carried
an important extension of the Factory Acts, besides many minor measures.
As for the Cab Act, about which the _Pall Mall Gazette_ has every now
and again raised a cuckoo cry, it is altogether a municipal one, and
ought not to be in the hands of a Secretary of State. As it was, Mr.
Bruce tried the experiment of "Free Trade." It failed, because the
London cab owners had not the enterprise to introduce better vehicles,
which he could not impose upon them. The Licensing question and the
Contagious Diseases Acts are two of the most important questions with
which Mr. Bruce is now endeavouring to grapple. Upon the construction of
both measures he has manifestly bestowed a great amount of labour.
For a Scotch Member to be also a Cabinet Minister is, at present, a
conjunction of exceeding rarity; and no less exceptional is it to find
the county of Renfrew returning to the House of Commons one who is not a
politician of native growth. For its size it has been remarkably
prolific in statesmen of ability. One of its burghs can point to such
memorable names as Wallace of Kelly, and Murray Dunlop; and the county
itself has, in our day, been represented (amongst others of its own
gentry) by that brilliant scholar and historian, the late Colonel Mure
of Caldwell, who was the lineal descendant of the Mures of Rowallan, one
of the very oldest of our Scottish families, and who was an embodiment
of many of the finest qualities which have characterised the members of
that ancient and honourable house. Nor can we forget that the sad event
which made way for the return of a stranger was the sudden death of
Captain Spiers of Elderslie--one who was just beginning to be
appreciated by the general public, as they saw the gradual development
of qualities which were solid rather than brilliant, and in whom were
united manliness and modesty in a degree which is rarely to be seen, and
which now gives more than a touch of pathos to his memory. There was no
want of local talent to supply the vacancy so unexpectedly and painfully
made by the removal of Captain Spiers, but a combination of curious
circumstances, and chiefly the state of transition which at the moment
characterised the politics of the two most likely candidates, left the
field open for a stranger, while the enthusiasm felt in this part of the
island for the new Prime Minister made it almost a matter of course
that the vacant seat should be conferred, on terms unexampled for
magnanimity and ease, upon that statesman who had been singled out for
the post of Home Secretary by Mr. Gladstone, but who, having been thrown
overboard at the general election by the new constituency of
Merthyr-Tydvil, was still destitute of the essential condition to the
retention of the high honour to which he had been nominated by his
political chief. The manner in which the constituencies of Scotland, and
especially those of our northern shires, responded to Mr. Gladstone at
the supreme moment of his political career, is a fact which cannot be
overlooked by any one who shall hereafter trace the lines of his
biography; and the most striking proof of the trust that was reposed in
him at that critical epoch by the people of Scotland will be found in
the facility with which his Home Secretary procured a seat for one of
her counties. Mr. Bruce's return for Renfrewshire was perhaps the finest
of all compliments paid by a generous and intelligent nation to Mr.
Gladstone. One could wish to see some proof that it was duly appreciated
in a little more attention being given to Scottish business in
Parliament, and also in an increased measure of respect being shown to
those measures of reform in which our agricultural population justly
feel so great an interest. Thus far, it must be confessed, the farmers
of Scotland have met with but a poor return for their fidelity; and we
cannot wonder if we perceive amongst them symptoms of discontent that
may ultimately lead to bitter estrangement.
HENRY GLASSFORD BELL.
Of Henry Glassford Bell, the Sheriff of Lanarkshire, we may say, as
Macaulay said of Johnston, "We are familiar with his personal
appearance, as with the faces that have surrounded us from childhood."
For nearly half-a-century he has been a foremost citizen in Glasgow.
During that long period he has taken an active interest in all that
relates to the welfare of the city. Not in Law alone, but in Music,
Literature, Painting, and the Fine Arts generally, he is regarded as an
authority. In short, he is the intellectual king of the city, although
he differs from a monarch _de juré_ in his accessibility to all ranks
and conditions of men, and in the homage and respect which are
universally and spontaneously paid to his high personal qualities. His
experience is a direct reversal of the ordinary rule, that "a prophet
hath honour save in his own country and in his own house." In tracing
the lines of Sheriff Bell's biography, we are entering upon a fertile
but hitherto unoccupied field. A man of rare gifts, and one of whose
happiest literary productions it may safely be predicated that they will
live in the literature of his country, he has now for upwards of thirty
years relinquished the pursuit of _belles lettres_, thereby sacrificing
the world-wide fame as an author to which, in the early part of his
career, he seemed likely to attain. But if he has failed to achieve a
niche in the Temple of Fame, he has at least secured a permanent place
in the respect of the legal profession, and in the esteem of his
fellow-citizens. If the scope of his mind has been narrowed by the
arduous and incessant labour devolved upon him by his official position,
he has yet been enabled to lead a life of more than ordinary usefulness;
and future generations will probably listen with wonder and admiration,
when they hear of the extraordinary amount of hard and irksome labour
which, when the eight or nine hours' movement was yet in embryo, the
Sheriff of a county embracing a third of the population of Scotland was
able to accomplish.
Born in Glasgow in 1805, Sheriff Bell is descended from an honourable
and honoured family. His father followed the practice of the law, and
educated Henry to the same career. It did not seem, however, as if the
son cared to have his father's mantle falling upon him. After receiving
the rudiments of his education at the High School of Glasgow, he
proceeded to Edinburgh, where he commenced to go through a regular
University curriculum. So far as the Scottish metropolis was concerned,
the first quarter of the present century was the Augustan age of
literature. Sir Walter Scott was in his meridian. De Quincey, under the
influence of the "Circean spells" of opium, was making _Blackwood_ a
power in the land. Sir William Hamilton, the greatest British supporter
of _à priori_ philosophy in this century, had just been appointed to the
Chair of Civil History. Through the columns of the _Edinburgh Review_,
Francis Jeffrey was "propounding heresies of all sorts against the
ruling fancies of the day, whether political, poetical, or social." John
Wilson, "Christopher North," that "monster of erudition," was acting as
the animating soul of his celebrated magazine. Amid such a galaxy of
brilliant constellations, Henry Bell graduated for a literary career,
and he was not esteemed the least of the parhelions that shone around
the fixed stars in that spacious intellectual firmament. By contact and
association with such men, he enjoyed exceptional facilities for
qualifying himself as an author; and having the "root of the matter" in
him, he published, in rapid succession, poems, sketches, and reviews
that were more than sufficient to justify the compliment which the
Ettrick Shepherd years afterwards pronounced upon them, when he said,
"Man, Henry, it was a great pity ye didna stick to literature; 'od,
Sir, ye micht hae done something at literature."
Finding, perhaps, that his tastes were literary rather than legal--that
he had a greater aptitude for _belles lettres_ than jurisprudence--young
Bell, on the 15th November, 1828, undertook the Editorship of the
_Edinburgh Literary Journal_. He was then twenty-three years of age. The
_Journal_ professed to be a "weekly register of criticism and _belles
lettres_." It contained fourteen pages of royal octavo, and its price
was sixpence. The motto of the _Literary Journal_--it was often the
custom in those days to select a motto for periodical publications--was
the following taken from Bruyere:--
"Talent, goût, esprit, bons sens, choses differentes,
Non incompatibles;"
and this was supplemented by the well-known verse of Burns--
"Here's freedom to him that would read,
Here's freedom to him that would write!
There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard,
But they whom the truth would indite."
On looking over the index to the first volume of the _Literary Journal_,
we find that it contained original contributions in miscellaneous
literature from Thomas Aird, the author of the Odd Volume; R. Carruthers
(editor of the _Inverness Courier_), R. Chambers, Derwent Conway, Dr.
Gillespie, Mrs. S. C. Hall, James Hogg, John Malcolm, Dr. Memes, Rev.
Dr. Morehead, Alexander Negris, Alexander Sutherland, William Tennant,
and William Weir. Of those who contributed original poetry, our readers
will be familiar with the names of the authoress of "Aloyse," Thomas
Atkinson, Alexander Balfour, Sheriff Bell himself (who, by the way, is
the most voluminous writer of all, his poems, in the list before us,
including "The Bachelor's Complaint," "Song to Leila," "Lines about
Love, and such like nonsense," "Edinburgh Revisited," and "To a
Favourite Actress"), Thomas Bryson, Gertrude, Captain Charles Gray, Mrs.
E. Hamilton, Mrs. Hemans, W. M. Hetherington, Alexander Maclagan, John
Malcolm, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Charles Doyne Sillery, Thomas Stoddart,
William Tennant, James Thomson, Alaric A. Watts, and Mrs. Grant of
Laggan. A rare combination of talent! An original contribution from
almost any one on this long list would be esteemed a priceless treasure
by the publishers of the present day. What would Mr. Strahan or Mr.
Macmillan not give to have the command of such a host?
A disposition to linger over the history and varied fortunes of this now
defunct censor, is naturally evolved from the contemplation of the
talent which it was able to command. A well-known author has said that
"whatever withdraws us from the power of the Senses; whatever makes the
past, the distant, or the future predominant over the present, advances
us in the dignity of human beings." So must the quondam editor of the
_Literary Journal_ think when he recalls the reminiscences of those
bygone days--days that were spent in edifying and agreeable association
with men and women whose names are inscribed on the roll of Scotland's
illustrious sons and daughters. He may also take a justifiable pride in
the fact that, by virtue of his position as editor, he was at once the
arbiter and the censor of works which have since, by universal
acclamation, been awarded a permanent place in the literature of
England. That Bell's conduct of the _Journal_ was able, popular, and
successful, we have ample evidence to show. It is proved by the variety
and excellence of the contributions which poured in upon him from the
most gifted writers of the day. In his _Noctes Ambrosianæ_, Professor
Wilson has published his attestation of the fact in the following
passage:--
NORTH--Here, James, is one of the best, because most
business-like prospectuses I ever read, of a new weekly
periodical about to be published in Edinburgh in the
middle of November--the _Edinburgh Literary Journal._
From what I know of the editor--a gentleman of talent,
spirit, and perseverance--I foretell the book will
prosper.
SHEPHERD--I shall be glad o' that, for ane gets tired
of that eternal soun'--_Blackwood's
Magazeen_--_Blackwood's Magazeen_--dinnin in ane's
lugs, day and night, a' life long.
Our readers will bear with what may appear to some to some to be
unnecessary digressions, when they reflect upon the influence that the
_Literary Journal_ exercised upon the subject of our sketch while he was
yet a young man "winning his spurs" in the field of literature. It was
through his editorship of the _Literary Journal_ that Mr. Bell formed his
close intimacy with all the distinguished writers of his day; and if
this was not the most useful, it certainly was the most interesting part
of the career of him whom we are proud to acknowledge as the author of
"Mary, Queen of Scots." From this time forward he was the most intimate
friend and companion of Wilson and Hogg. The former came to Edinburgh in
1815, with the view of practising at the Scottish bar, so that Bell had
no opportunities of visiting him at his beautiful residence at Elleray,
on the banks of Lake Windermere, where for years previously he had lived
in Utopian health and happiness, "surrounded by the finest of scenery,
and varying his poem-writing and halcyon peace, with walking excursions
and jovial visits from friends that, like himself, entered with zest
into the hearty enjoyment of life." But, as between Bell and Wilson,
there was a fellow-feeling that made them "wondrous kind," they were
much in each other's society. Both were fond of piscatorial pursuits.
Wilson had early discovered an enthusiasm for angling, which he used to
cultivate on the banks of Lake Windermere. Bell, too, became a disciple
of Isaac Walton, and to indulge their love of sport, and to enjoy each
other's company where, removed from the busy haunts of men, they might
"hear the tumult and be still," they were accustomed to spend whole days
and nights on the banks of Loch Awe, and amid the gloomy and impressive
scenery of Glen Dochart. At other times they would plan walking
excursions. It was no unusual thing for them to walk upwards of thirty
miles at a stretch. They had not then the command of railway facilities,
nor did they want them. Muscular vigour, and a love of intellectual
pursuits were qualities characteristic of both men, and both possessed a
large amount of physical endurance. In physique, too, there was a
considerable _vraisemblance_. Christopher North has been described as a
"Goth of great personal prowess." Haydon says of him that he was like a
fine Sandwich Islander, who had been educated in the Highlands. His
light hair, deep sea blue eye, tall athletic figure, and hearty hand
grasp, his eagerness in debate, his violent passions, great genius, and
irregular habits, rendered him a formidable partisan, a furious enemy,
and an ardent friend. Of Bell, with one or two qualifications, the same
description would hold good. Wilson has immortalised their intimacy and
friendship in his "Noctes," where Bell is made to figure as "Tallboys,"
and where he is only mentioned with respect and affection. In the Six
Foot Club, an institution which had a local habitation and a name in
Edinburgh during the early part of the nineteenth century, and of which
both Wilson and Bell were members, they had further opportunities for
muscular exercise. It was an indispensable condition to membership in
this club that the candidate should be over six feet in height; and it
is surprising how many men who have made their mark in literature,
science, and art had attained that _sine qua non_. Physical and
intellectual greatness were so invariably combined in those days that
the two were thought by many vulgar minds to go hand in hand; but even
in the "Six Feet Club" there were few who presented in all respect a
more _distingué_ appearance than the subject of these remarks.
Another of Bell's most intimate friends during these years was James
Hogg, the "Ettrick Shepherd." Along with Wilson and other friends he
paid several visits to Hogg's native place, where they enjoyed pleasant
ramblings by St Mary's Loch, and in the Vale of Yarrow, to which the
Shepherd's muse has imparted quite a classic interest. There was,
however, a species of vulgarity about Hogg, which marred his otherwise
estimable qualities, and his uncouth Johnsonian habits were probably the
means of erecting a barrier between himself and more cultivated friends.
Lockhart, in his life of Scott, speaks of Hogg as a "a true son of
nature and genius," and this he undoubtedly was. One who had taught
himself to write by copyright the letters of a printed book as he lay
watching his flock on the hill side, and whose vivacious imagination, as
his own brother informs us, disqualified him from study or research, was
not likely while alive to make many close friends in the exclusive and
polished circles which formed the _élite_ of Edinburgh. But by Bell and
a few others, who saw the diamond glittering in the rough casket, Hogg
was duly appreciated. To the _Literary Journal_ he was a constant
contributor both of prose and verse, and he took a warm interest in its
success. When the proposal to erect a monument to the Shepherd in
Ettrick Vale took a practical shape, Sheriff Bell was selected to
inaugurate the structure. This he did on the 28th June, 1860. In fitting
terms, his old friend panegyrised the virtues and the genius of The
Shepherd, describing him "as a true poet--not equal to Burns, because no
national poet was ever equal to Burns, because no national poet was ever
equal to him--but justly entitled to take rank in the second place, and
worthily taking up the harp which he found lying on the grave of that
immortal man."
In the year 1830 Mr. Bell relinquished his connection with the _Literary
Journal_, which was conducted for some time afterwards by Mr. William
Weir. The paper had never been a "good property," even in its palmiest
days, and Mr. Weir, after carrying it on for a few months, allowed it to
stop, and came to Glasgow for the purpose of establishing a newspaper,
pure and simple. Mr. Weir was well known in Glasgow from his long
connection with the _Argus_, which he edited with rare tact and ability
until he was called to occupy a similar position on the _Daily News_ in
London. Meantime Mr. Bell was admitted a member of the Faculty of
Advocates. This was in 1832, so that he was in his twenty-seventh year.
Up till now he had consecrated his whole talents and energies to the
pursuit of literary eminence, his greatest works being his well-known
poem on "Mary, Queen of Scots," and his vindication of the same
unfortunate monarch in a masterly history of her life. These works were
to him a labour of love, for he has always manifested a deep sympathy
with the misfortunes of the unhappy Mary Stuart. It is even said that it
was to his intense devotion to her memory, and his beautiful poem on her
life, that he was indebted for his wife, who claimed some remote
connection with the Queen of Scots, through Donald Dhu, of whom she was
a descendant. Mrs. Bell, we believe, was a daughter of Captain Stuart of
Sheerglass, on the banks of the Garry, opposite Athole, and _en passant_
we may remark that her forefathers took a prominent part in the battle
of Killiecrankie. As an advocate, Sheriff Bell never held a
distinguished position. He was, perhaps, too far advanced in life before
he joined the bar. Be that as it may, he was one of a numerous circle of
_literati_ who lived contemporary with and subsequent to himself, to
whom the bar never brought any laurels; but after all, he made better
progress in the Court of Session than Professor Blackie, whose briefs
were so terribly akin to angels' visits that he has been heard to
declare himself that his practice as an advocate never brought him so
much as £40 a-year. Nor was his success less than that of Professor
Wilson, Professor Ferries, Professor Aytoun, Professor Innes, Sir
William Hamilton, Hilburton, Spalding, and others whom we might mention,
who have stamped the English literature with the sign-manual of their
genius, and whose names will be held in remembrance and honour long
after those of the most distinguished lawyers of the age shall have
passed to the limbo of oblivion. Advocates who also followed the
profession of _litterateurs_, and were addicted to _belles lettres_,
often experienced unfair treatment at the hands of the agents or
writers by whom counsel is usually retained. They were not considered
safe men. And if they were not completely ostracised from legal life,
they were so far tabooed and kept at a distance that their emoluments
from their legal practice could not, if they had depended solely upon
that source of income, have held body and soul together. Besides this,
the Edinburgh bar at that time could boast of a most unusual combination
of legal talent. Some of the ablest lawyers of this or any other age
were at that time practising in the Parliament House. And the eminence
of not a few men was so great as to leave a long way behind others who,
like Sheriff Bell, would now be considered above the average in their
profession. The young advocate of 1872 has not to encounter such
intellectual giants as Patrick Robertson, Jeffrey, Cockburn, Rutherford,
M'Neil, Moncrieff, Hope, and other contemporaries of Bell, who shed the
lustre of their genius upon the law of Scotland, and secured for the
Court of Session a reputation higher, perhaps, than even Westminster
Hall has ever been able to attain.
At this time, and throughout the whole of his literary career, Sheriff
Bell was an uncompromising Tory. He never took any prominent part in
imperial politics, although in the Edinburgh Town Council, of which he
was for some time a member--sitting as the representative of St.
George's Ward--he entered into some fierce debates on the Annuity-tax
with Duncan M'Laren. That obnoxious impost was even then, as it has
subsequently been, a great bone of contention, and proved the _casus
belli_ of many a wordy war. The embryo M.P. was generally, as we are
well informed, more than a match for the young advocate, whom he
overcame with those simple but effectual weapons--facts and figures.
In 1836, Sheriff Bell stood as a candidate for the Logic Chair in
Edinburgh University, his opponents being Mr. Isaac Taylor, author of
the "Natural History of Enthusiasm;" Mr. George Combe, the phrenologist;
and Sir William Hamilton. Previous to that time, Sir William had been
Professor of Civil History in the University, and his candidature for
the Logic Chair, which was strongly supported by Mr. Adam Black and Mr.
Napier, editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, was successful.
While nominally following his practice at the bar, Mr. Bell still
continued to attach himself to literary pursuits. There are some rather
good stories told of his attachment to the Temple of Thespis, of which,
while in Edinburgh, he had always been a regular attender. When a
well-known actor, made his first appearance at the Edinburgh
Theatre-Royal, it is said that Bell wrote a slashing criticism of the
performance, his article concluding with the significant remark:
"_N.B._--Steamers sail from Leith for London twice a week," meaning, of
course, that however well the new actor might satisfy the London
critics, he did not come up to the standard of the Edinburgh drama.
Indeed, Mr. Bell made the drama a special study, and his opinion on any
new play or actor was always asked and listened to with the utmost
deference. He was on very intimate terms with the late Mr. William H.
Murray, manager of the "Royal," and through him furnished a number of
prologues for that theatre in its palmiest days. He also established for
himself a high reputation as a lecturer on the Fine Arts; and his
prelections on music, poetry, sculpture, painting, and the drama were
universally admitted to be of a high order of merit. Until the present
hour, Sheriff Bell continues to manifest a great attachment to the Fine
Arts, and amid the pressure of his official duties, he often finds
leisure to visit the theatres either in Glasgow or in Edinburgh.
In 1839, Mr. Bell was appointed a Sheriff-Substitute of Lanarkshire,
with a salary of £400 per annum. The appointment lay with Sir Archibald
Alison, who is said to have been favourably impressed with his
successor's conduct while acting as junior counsel for the Glasgow
cotton-spinners when they were brought to trial in the spring of 1838
for conspiracy. When Mr. Bell became Sheriff-Substitute, the duties of
the office were very light compared with what they are at the present
time. For a number of years his only colleague was the late Mr. George
Skene, who subsequently became Professor of Law in Glasgow University.
Indeed, the duties of the Sheriffs continued to be comparatively easy up
to 1853, when the passing of the Sheriff Court Act, which compelled
Sheriffs to take all notes of evidence in their own handwriting,
rendered the work much more laborious. Their salaries were raised from
time to time, in proportion to the increased irksomeness and
responsibility of their duties; and it is a fact worth noting, that
whereas Mr. Bell, as Sheriff-Substitute, had only £400, Mr. Dickson, in
the same sphere of labour, has now £1400 per annum.
On the death of Sir Archibald Alison in 1867, Mr. Bell was appointed
Sheriff-Principal. One of his first acts upon his promotion was so
graceful in itself and so creditable to his good taste that we cannot
refrain from referring to it here. To external appearance, Sheriff Bell
has little of the _suaviter in modo_ about him; and while acting as
Sheriff-Substitute, he gave offence to several of the agents practising
in the local courts by what may be called a little gruffness of
demeanour. Coming to hear that his manner had been spoken of as
offensive, Sheriff Bell, on succeeding Sir Archibald Alison, candidly
and broadly referred to the fact in open court. He expressed his regret
if anything defective in his manner had given unintentional offence, and
declared that, so far as it was in his power, the Faculty might rely in
future upon being treated with every courtesy and consideration. Such a
frank and candid avowal could only come from a manly man; and it went a
long way towards restoring Sheriff Bell to the confidence and esteem of
the offended practitioners.
With the exception of this little cloud, Sheriff Bell has uniformly
lived in peace and concord with his professional friends, and he has at
their hands received many little marks of honour and respect. In 1852, a
rumour went out that Sir Archibald Alison was to be elevated to the
Supreme Court. This led the profession in Glasgow to present a memorial
to the Lord-Advocate, praying that in such an event Sheriff Bell might
be made Sir Archibald's successor. Again, about 12 years ago, strong
representations and inducements were held out to him to return to
Edinburgh as consulting counsel in Mercantile Law--a department of
jurisprudence which, if he did not altogether create it, Sheriff Bell
has done much to develop and bring into a practical shape. Although the
offer promised the realisation of a handsome income, it was respectfully
declined. Still farther we may remark, that it was no small honour to
Mr. Bell that he was made Sheriff of Lanarkshire contrary to the usual
custom, which is to appoint to the office some one that has acted for a
longer or shorter period as Advocate-Depute--a place which he, of
course, has never filled.
As a judge, Sheriff Bell displays remarkable discrimination and insight.
He is gifted in a large measure, with the judicial faculty; but for the
same reason that he is a good judge, he would probably fail as a
pleader. At the bar it is customary only to represent and contend for
one side of a case, to the exclusion or destruction of the other; but on
the bench conflicting arguments have to be duly weighed, and the balance
so adjusted between them that truth and justice may ultimately be
evolved. In thus discriminating between irreconcilable issues, and duly
weighing the arguments presented on both sides, Sheriff Bell is
particularly at home; and his decisions are remarkable for standing the
great test of an appeal to the Supreme Court.
Since he came to Glasgow as Sheriff-Substitute, Mr. Bell has taken an
active part in all public movements apart from politics; and in regard
to educational and scientific matters he deserves to rank as a pioneer.
When the Social Science Congress met in Glasgow in 1860, Professor
Pillans and other _savants_ were dining with Sheriff Bell, whose sound
judgment and profound knowledge of nearly every subject brought under
discussion enabled him to take a very intelligent and conspicuous part
in the proceedings. Talking of authors and their works, Professor
Pillans quoted certain lines, respecting which he asked Sheriff Bell
whether he had ever heard them before. The latter confessed that he did
not recollect them. "Why," said the Professor, "you wrote these lines
when you were a pupil in my class." On another occasion, when Thackeray
came to Glasgow to deliver his lectures on the Four Georges, the great
novelist was introduced to the Sheriff of Lanarkshire by the late Mr.
Walter Buchanan, M.P. At that time there was some disagreement between
Thackeray and the directors of the Athenæum as to the terms of his
engagement, and we believe that Thackeray considered himself (whether
with or without just cause) to have been badly used. Referring to Mr.
Bell as the champion of Mary Stuart, Mr. Buchanan jocosely remarked to
Thackeray that he must not repeat in Glasgow the attack he had made in
Edinburgh on Mary Queen of Scots. "Never fear," replied Thackeray, "I
can't afford to do it for the money."
By his wife, whom he has now survived nearly twenty years, Sheriff Bell
had one son and four daughters. Three of his daughters have been
married--one to Professor Nichol, and the other two to members of the
firm of M'Clellan, Son, & Co., accountants, Glasgow. The fourth daughter
is unmarried.
MR. ROBERT DALGLISH.
There are not a few reminiscences associated with the name and history
of Mr. Robert Dalglish, the senior representative of Glasgow, that must
tend to render a record of his life peculiarly interesting to his
constituents. Born at Glasgow in 1808, he is now in his sixty-third
year. His father was emphatically one of the pioneers of Glasgow's
industrial prosperity. Born in humble circumstances, he "burst his
birth's invidious bar," and elevated himself to the proud position of
the first magistrate of that city "whose merchants are princes and whose
traffickers are the honourable of the earth." During his three years
tenure of the civic chair, Mr. Robert Dalglish, sen., approved himself a
very useful and excellent citizen, and his attention to municipal
affairs was most unremitting and diligent, while at the same time he was
laying the foundations of that splendid business to which his son, the
subject of the present sketch, ultimately succeeded. Our Senior Member
was educated at the University of Glasgow, and "when the fulness of the
time had come," he was admitted a partner in the firm of which his
father was then the principal, and which is now well-known by the title
of R. Dalglish, Falconer, & Co. It is, perhaps, the largest
calico-printing firm in Scotland, their works at Campsie employing
upwards of 1000 hands. Since his accession to the business, Mr. Dalglish
has largely extended and improved the original works, so that they are
now vastly superior to what they were at that time. Several substantial
additions, including a large engraving shop, were recently made to meet
the requirements of the firm. It is worthy of note that the father of
Mr. Dalglish occupied as a dwelling-house the building now used as the
offices of the firm in St Vincent Place--the business part of the city
being at that time within a short radius of the Cross. To the son,
however, the lines have fallen in more pleasant places, for his mansion
at Kilmardinny, near Milngavie, is one of the most "highly desirable
residences" (as an auctioneer would phrase it) in the West of Scotland.
The grounds or policies attached to the house extend to 140 acres, and
within recent years Mr. Dalglish has expended a great deal of both money
and taste on his fine property.
Of Mr. Dalglish's political connection with the city there is not much to
be said. Up to the year 1857 he had not taken any active part in either
municipal or political affairs; and when he announced his intention of
coming forward as a candidate for the representation of the city in
April of that year, the Whigs and the Tories alike were taken by
surprise. Glasgow had then only two members. Both of them had been in
Parliament for a number of years, although neither had ever been
distinguished for any brilliant political achievement. Mr. Dalglish was
brought forward by no section or party--at least he disclaimed any
connection with either Whigs or Tories, and as for the Radicals, they
were then out in the cold. He stood, as he himself said, on his own
responsibility, and as a perfectly independent candidate. It is not too
much to affirm that it was his pluck and independence that carried him
through. He had little difficulty in forming a committee, including, for
the most part, gentlemen of considerable local influence, and that _sine
qua non_ having been obtained, the rest was comparatively smooth
sailing. Mr. Hastie, his opponent, was a quiet and easy-going member, who
never did anything, either good, bad, or indifferent, to distinguish
himself in the House of Commons, and who, as one of his _quasi_ friends
declared, had not even the merit of being a regular attender, although
he had represented the city in Parliament for ten continuous years. On
the nomination day, Mr. Dalglish was accompanied to the platform by
Bailie Galbraith, Mr. W. West Watson (City Chamberlain), Mr. David
Dreghorn, Councillor Moir, Mr. Walter Paterson, and other gentlemen, who
still figure in the ranks of our most prominent citizens. His nomination
was proposed by Bailie Galbraith, and seconded by Mr. W. West Watson. Mr.
Dalglish delivered a thoroughly characteristic speech, of which we are
in a position to give the salient points. He said:--"I shall not refer
to my antecedents as has been done by my hon. opponents; but this I will
say, that for the future I am prepared to do everything for the
advancement of the interests of the people. I am anxious to see not the
reform of 1832, which was a mere sham and delusion, but a reform which
will give to every householder a vote, and a vote to every man who pays
a direct tax to the Government. (Great cheering.) I am in favour of
every social and sanitary reform in this city; and if our local
philanthropists--the Hendersons, the Campbells, and the Clarks--will
turn their attention to the centre of the city, where the masses of our
population are congregated, and project some scheme for the opening up
of the closes and winds, and the building of better houses for the
working classes, I shall be ready to support them. (The city improvement
scheme was at that date in the matrix of the future.) I have much
respect for the voluntary system of education, but I feel that it does
not reach all the children of a large city such as Glasgow, and that
therefore a national system of education is required. I would also
support the establishment of schools for the teaching of children,
because I believe that he who teaches should first be taught himself.
(Laughter.) I am against all intervention with other States, but at the
same time I would prevent intervention by others. (Cheers, and a call,
"put on your hat Bob," and laughter.) I will support Lord Palmerston so
long as his policy is conducted with a view to the true interests of the
country--so long as his measures are calculated to promote the interests
of the masses--but I will not support Lord Palmerston if he is disposed
to offer any opposition to a Liberal measure of Reform." The show of
hands was declared by Sheriff Alison to be in favour of Mr. Buchanan
and Mr. Dalglish, and a poll was demanded for Mr. Hastie. The poll took
place next day, when the majority of those who had supported Mr. Merry,
at the election six weeks before, recorded their votes for Mr. Dalglish.
At the close of the poll the votes stood--
Buchanan, 7069
Dalglish, 6764
Hastie, 5044
At every subsequent election Mr. Dalglish has been returned with
acclamation. At one time he announced his intention to retire from
Parliamentary duties, but a numerous and influential deputation from
Glasgow waited upon and induced him to alter his resolution. At the
General Election of 1868, the electors raised a subscription, to which
men of all ranks and all shades of politics contributed, to defray his
election expenses, and so liberal was the response made by his
constituents that he was returned free of personal cost.
Of Mr. Dalglish's merits as our Parliamentary representative it behoves
us to say something, and we can safely premise with the affirmation that
few men have a greater personal influence in the House of Commons. Those
who cannot see a little behind the scenes may wonder at this apparently
rash statement, and ask--What has Mr. Dalglish done to give him a
political influence? When has he ever made any brilliant speeches? What
great measures has he succeeded in passing? Do you ever see his name
even so much as mentioned in Parliamentary debates? To one and all of
these questions the friends and admirers of Mr. Dalglish would almost be
compelled to return a negative answer. To the uninitiated Mr. Dalglish,
so far as any outward and visible manifestations of power and
influence--of senatorial usefulness and ability--is concerned, will
appear to be a mere cipher. But it does not require the meddlesomeness
of a Whalley, or the volubility of a Newdegate, to make a politician.
In politics, as in the minor affairs of life, tact and discrimination
often go for more than fervid bursts of oratory, or highly-concentrated
genius. In the region of politics, too, there are wheels within
wheels--an _imperium in imperio_. The House of Commons bears, in some
respects, a remarkable affinity to a puppet-show. You cannot always see
the magician who pulls the strings, and moves the political machine
obedient to his will. And of no man in the House of Commons is this more
true than of Mr. Dalglish. Unless one is under his magic spell, it is
impossible to understand its mainspring, although it is easy to feel its
effects. Ask the influential citizens of Glasgow to reveal the secret of
Mr. Dalglish's power, and they will mention two qualities, both very good
in their way but neither of them, one would think, sufficient to give
their possessor a transcendent influence in the most august and
intellectual assembly in the world. We would be told, first of his _bon
hommie_, and next of his punctuality and unfailing attention to his
Parliamentary duties. Put the same question to those who see behind the
scenes, however, and they would probably return another and a more
truthful answer by ascribing Mr. Dalglish's popularity to his _good
dinners_. In this respect he is unique. With almost unfailing regularity
he invites his friends and enemies alike to dine twice a week. We mean,
of course, his political enemies, for of personal enemies, Mr. Dalglish
must have very few. At these bi-weekly feasts, men of all shades of
politics, and of all degrees and stations in life, meet together with
the most delicious equality and freedom from restraint. Lord and
commoner, peer and peasant, marquis and merchant, are thrown into
immediate contact, and hob-nob without restriction or ceremony. The
unalloyed joviality and good humour of the host is imparted to the
guests, and while as a dispenser of creature comforts Mr. Dalglish stands
almost alone, he has a suavity of manner that disarms party feeling, and
compels a favour when it is asked for. It is not to be wondered at,
under these circumstances, that our Senior Member is the presiding
genius of the House of Commons' kitchen, or that in the administration
of cigars and wines he is perfectly at home. We all know that
"A fellow feeling makes us wondrous kind;"
and so long as human infirmities tend in the direction of a good dinner,
so long will Mr. Dalglish, whose unbounded hospitality must have cost him
quite a large fortune, remain the _facile princeps_ of diplomatists.
It would be unfair, however, to imply that Mr. Dalglish owes his
influential position in the House of Commons to this speciality alone.
No member is more regular in his attendance on Parliamentary duties. Mr.
Dalglish is always in his place, and he is ever eager to promote the
interests of his constituents. He has rendered yeoman service to the
municipal affairs of the city, having sat on many committees appointed
to deal with bills promoted by the Corporation. His solicitude to oblige
his constituents is, indeed, only bounded by his ability to serve them,
and the "open sesame" is seldom beyond his control. As a speaker he
never did and never will excel, although he has several times, and
notably on the question of the management of the dockyards, addressed
the House.
In personal appearance, Mr. Dalglish is about the ordinary height. He has
a genial and pleasant countenance, to which a long white beard imparts
somewhat of a patriarchal aspect; and the merry twinkle of his keen,
bright eye affords a capital index to his real character. His whole
demeanour is that of a man in whom confidence may be reposed without
fear of rebuff, and no man in the House could be more readily accessible
to his constituents. Mr. Dalglish is considered to have as good a
technical knowledge of the House of Commons' business as any private
member in it.
Consistently with his Liberal principles, Mr. Dalglish voted for the
disestablishment and disendowment of the Irish Church in 1869. He is in
favour of the withdrawal of all State grants for religious purposes, and
he is also an advocate for the assimilation of the county and borough
franchise.
MR. WILLIAM GRAHAM.
There are politicians and politicians. It is due to the varied opinions
and characters of its members that the House of Commons is such an
eminently representative assembly. It is not wealth alone, neither is it
genius, that affords the "open sesame" to Parliamentary fame. The wheels
of progress would probably move much slower than they do, if all who
entered St. Stephen's were gifted orators. Eloquence is a great
recommendation to a seat in Parliament; but there are other qualities
which, without being so conspicuous, are perhaps much more solid, and in
the long run lead to the accomplishment of a greater amount of really
useful work. Talking and working are essentially different things; and
it is well for Parliament, for the newspapers, and for the nation at
large, that so many excellent legislators are compelled to confess, like
Marc Antony, "I am no orator." The members for Glasgow have never made
themselves famous in the direction of much speaking; their aim has been
to gather much wool with little cry, thus reversing completely the
well-known motto. The interests of a city like Glasgow are purely
commercial and industrial, but they require to be constantly watched
with the utmost vigilance. To guard and conserve them aright requires,
also, a more or less practical and comprehensive knowledge of mercantile
affairs. This Mr. Graham possesses in a marked degree, having been
trained from his youth up in all the ramifications of commerce; and on
this ground alone his claims to represent his native city in Parliament
are not to be despised. But he has another, and, perhaps, still
stronger, hold upon the sympathies and support of the "free and
independent electors" of St. Mungo. He is recognised as the advocate
and representative of the religious and educational interests in
Parliament, and it was upon this basis that he was returned. Mr.
Dalglish has been so long and so closely associated with the commercial
and municipal interests of the city, that it would be impossible to find
one with a stronger hold in that direction. As for Mr. Anderson, he is,
of course, the champion of the working classes, and holds his seat by
their suffrages. But there was still another important party not
directly represented--the party to whom the city is indebted for much of
its social, intellectual, and religious prosperity--and Mr. Graham
stepped in to fill up the breach. Nailing his colours to the mast of the
good ship "Nonconformity," he has all along contended for religious
equality and toleration throughout the whole Empire; and if his
_specialité_ is not that of "darkening counsel with vain words," he has
given his best services since he entered Parliament to the advancement
of the true and permanent interests of his constituents, by unremitting
application to such duties as came within his reach.
Mr. Graham is the eldest son of the late Mr. Wm. Graham, of Burnshields,
by Catherine, daughter of Mr. J. Swanston. He was born in Glasgow in
1817, and after passing some time at a private school, was sent to
Glasgow University, where he finished his education. He is married to
Jane Catherine, daughter of the late Mr. John Lowndes, formerly of
Arthurlie, Renfrewshire. Mr. Graham succeeded to his father's place as
head of the firm of William Graham & Co., merchants. The principal
business in which he is engaged is that of cotton-spinning, the firm
owning the Lancefield Factory, which, if not one of the largest, is at
any rate one of the oldest establishments of its kind in Glasgow, and
carries the memory back to the days when cotton and not iron was the
industrial King of the West. At the Lancefield Factory there are upwards
of 1000 hands employed, principally women, and the annual output of
cotton is nearly equal to that of some of the largest mills in
Manchester. Besides being a cotton-spinner, however, Mr. Graham is also a
wine importer on a very considerable scale, and is largely engaged in
the East India produce trade. Vintages of the choicest quality, and
ports of the heaviest "body," are imported by the firm direct from
Lisbon and Oporto, where they have branch establishments; and so
conspicuous for their excellence are the wines which they import, that
when _paterfamilias_ wants to impress upon his guest that he is enjoying
an unmistakeable treat, he announces that the grateful beverage under
discussion "was imported direct by William Graham & Co." In his father's
days, Mr. Graham represented the house both in India and on the
Continent, and since he became head of the firm, he has devoted himself
with the utmost assiduity to the management and direction of affairs at
home. Thus, unlike either of his colleagues, Mr. Graham takes an active
personal supervision of a large mercantile concern, at the same time
that he earns the credit of being one if the most regular attenders in
the House of Commons. Indeed, he makes it a matter of duty to attend the
House closely, and it is a fair matter of doubt whether there are
half-a-dozen members--not in office--who attend to their Parliamentary
duty with more punctuality and unfailing attention than the three
representatives for Glasgow.
On the retirement from Parliamentary duties, through commercial
misfortunes, of Mr. Buchanan, who had for many years been the senior
member for the city, Mr. Wm. Graham came forward as a candidate. His
address to the electors, dated the 11th May, 1865, contained the
following:--"A native of Glasgow, an alumnus of her University, and
connected with the city by the closest ties of business and of
friendship, I have felt that for the honour and usefulness of such a
position the cares of business may well be, to some extent,
relinquished, and the duties and responsibilities of public life
undertaken; and should I be fortunate enough to secure your suffrages,
my best efforts and most anxious attention shall not be spared
faithfully to represent the views and advocate the interests of this
great community.... I may at least say, in a few words, that from my
earliest recollection I have been strongly attached to Liberal
principles, and that nothing can ever alter my faith in the truth and
wisdom of what are known as Liberal opinions in civil and religious
politics, or diminish my deep interest in the social, civil, and
religious progress of the country." On the following day Mr. Dalglish
took his constituents by surprise by announcing that it was not his
intention to seek re-election. On the 10th June, Mr. John Ramsay issued
an address, in which he enunciated his advocacy of economy and
retrenchment in the public expenditure, recommended a judicious
extension of the franchise, and stated, in reference to the Maynooth
grant, which at that time engaged at a considerable amount of attention,
that he "would oppose any further grants from the national exchequer,
either in favour of the Roman Catholics or any other body." Mr. Ramsay
set forth, in conclusion, that "his business connection with Glasgow for
nearly thirty years past had made him acquainted with local affairs, and
it would be his pleasure, as he should regard it his duty, to give
unremitting attention to every measure fitted to advance the interests
of the city." The candidature of Mr. Graham was from the first looked
upon with a great deal of favour by a large body of the more influential
electors, and his general committee, of which Mr. Archibald Orr Ewing of
Ballikinrain was chairman, and Bailie J. W. Anderson was
deputy-chairman, comprised the names of Mr. Wm. Kidston, Sir James
Lumsden, Mr. Alex. Dennistoun of Golfhill, Mr. Colin R. Dunlop, Mr. Alex.
Crum Ewing, Mr. John Orr Ewing of Tillichewan, Mr. W. J. Davidson of
Ruchill, and Mr. J. C. Wakefield. At the nomination, which took place on
the 12th of July, the show of hands was declared to be in favour of Mr.
Dalglish (who had been induced to stand again) and Mr. Graham--the
latter, indeed, obtaining a larger display than either of the other two
candidates. The poll, which was demanded on behalf of Mr. Ramsay, took
place on the following morning, and from the outset Mr. Graham was a long
way ahead of either of his opponents. At four o'clock the poll stood--
Graham, 8113
Dalglish, 6707
Ramsay, 5837
Thus giving a majority of 2276 for Mr. Graham, and a majority of 878 for
Mr. Dalglish. On entering Parliament at the commencement of the session
of 1866, Mr. Graham had the honour of being selected to second the
Address to her Majesty, which was moved by Lord H. Cavendish. This he
did in a singularly able and practical address, which was listened to
with great attention by the House. The _Daily Telegraph_, in its
Parliamentary summary, referring to this occasion, said:--"Mr. Graham,
the new member for Glasgow, spoke like an _habitué_ of the House of
twenty years' standing. He had caught the very manner of the place,
spoke fluently, almost eloquently, and exhibited both political and
commercial knowledge. It was an undoubted success, and Mr. Gladstone, who
had listened attentively, warmly congratulated him when he sat down."
In reference to Mr. Graham's political tendencies and conduct, we may
remark that although he has mainly been a supporter of the policy of Mr.
Gladstone's Government, he has at the same time, on questions of
principle, held himself entirely independent of any Government or party.
He is more especially associated with that section of the House which
represents the English Nonconformists and the Presbyterians of all three
countries. Next in importance to religious progress and toleration as a
matter of Parliamentary policy, Mr. Graham advocates the reduction of the
national expenditure, holding that the present scale thereof is
excessive beyond any possible justification. Therefore, in every case
where such a reduction appeared in his view to be honestly aimed at, he
has been in the habit of acting with the economists.
Although he has never been a prominent speaker in the House, Mr. Graham
is, in his own way, a very useful member, and he is specially called
into requisition when any matter of an ecclesiastical or educational
kind is under consideration. In many ways he has shown an anxiety to be
useful, and to those of his constituents who make calls upon his time
and services he is always most accessible and ready to oblige. Although
a Liberal, he is not in favour of extensive changes, and he is opposed
to any interference with religious questions, whether by endowments or
State connection, by the Government.
Mr. Graham, we may add, is a magistrate and deputy lieutenant of
Lanarkshire.
MR. GEORGE ANDERSON.
Mr. George Anderson, the junior member for the city of Glasgow, was born
at Liverpool in 1819, and is thus in his 52d year. He is a son of George
Anderson, Esq., of Luscar, Fifeshire, by his marriage with Miss Rachel
Inglis. His father, who had been in early life in the navy, was for some
years managing partner of the firm of Messrs. Dennistown & Co. at Havre
and New Orleans, from which he left to be manager of the one branch of
the old Glasgow Bank (with which the same house was largely connected)
at Kirkcaldy, of which town he was afterwards for many years the
highly-respected Provost.
Mr. Anderson was educated partly at Havre, partly at the High School of
Edinburgh, and subsequently at the University of St Andrews. On coming
to Glasgow in 1841, he entered the concern of Alex. Fletcher & Co.,
flaxspinners, St. Rollox, and was latterly managing partner of that
extensive manufacturing establishment, employing nearly 2000 workpeople;
and through his experience there, during 25 years, he acquired that
knowledge of the grievances and wants of the working classes which has
enabled him to legislate for them since. Mr. Anderson had never taken any
part in Municipal affairs, but he had in other ways always done his fair
share of public work. The Polytechnic Institution, the Fine Art
Exhibitions that preceded the present Institute, the Art Union, the
Philosophical Society, the Lock Hospital--of all of these he had been an
active promoter or director. In connection with the West of Scotland
Angling Club, of which he was a zealous member, he had successfully
introduced the grayling into Scotland--an achievement in
acclimatisation worthy of being remembered. While President of the
Glasgow Skating Club he published a treatise on the art of skating,
which is still the most popular manual on the subject, and has, we
believe, reached a third edition. In 1859, on the starting of the
Volunteer movement, Mr. Anderson took an enthusiastic part, and was among
the original officers of the 4th Lanark, with which corps he has
continued, being still its senior major; while he has repeatedly
advocated, in the House, the claims of the Volunteers to increased
assistance as an economical measure for national defence.
His candidature for the City of Glasgow, in 1868, was promoted by the
local branch of the Reform League, conjointly with the trade delegates,
who held a conference to deliberate on the matter. Previous to that
time, our junior member was well known among the _proletariat_ for his
well-timed efforts to effect the abolition of the arrestment of wages.
In 1852 he started the subject of wages arrestment by a series of
letters in the _Reformer's Gazette_, _Daily Mail_, and _Herald_. The
subject had long been felt to be a sore grievance and rock of offence
among the working classes, and periodical agitations had taken place
without leading to any decided action. From the very first Glasgow took
the initiative in seeking to modify or get rid altogether of a law which
pressed with greater severity on the lower orders than, perhaps, any
other enactment that ever found its way into the Statute Books of
Scotland. The late Neale Thomson, of Camphill, gave great assistance in
that agitation, and a very exhaustive and able pamphlet on the
arrestment of wages was published by Mr. Anderson in 1853, which led to
the appointment of a Royal Commission; but though the report was
entirely favourable to Mr. Anderson's views, nothing came of it, as under
the £10 franchise the small shopkeepers were too strong for them, and
the work which they had been sanguine of completing in 1854 was left for
himself to do alone in 1870. Mr. Anderson wrote frequently on the
currency question. His most recent production (published in 1866) was a
pamphlet entitled "The Reign of Bullionism"--having previously read a
paper on the subject of the Bank Acts to the Social Science Congress at
Manchester--in which he advocated a national issue of note currency, and
the abrogation of the Bank of England charter, and all other banks'
monopoly. His literature was not all, however, of so practical a
character; not long before he had edited, jointly with Mr. J. Finlay, a
volume containing fifty of the best of the poems written on the
centenary of Robert Burns--one of his own, which had been highly
commended at the Crystal Palace competition, being among them. The
volume is, perhaps, the most fitting tribute to the memory of our
national poet that has appeared, and we believe it is now out of print.
In the education question Mr. Anderson had always taken a keen interest.
Besides lectures and papers to the Philosophical Society, the
Educational Institute, and the Social Science Congress he published two
pamphlets pointing out how utterly worthless the half-time education
clauses of the Factory Acts had proved, and urging compulsory education,
or, in default of that, a _quasi_ compulsion in the form of an
educational test, in place of an age test, for youthful labour. He also
came prominently before the public on the occasion of an agitation which
took place in 1867 in reference to the subject of an education bill for
Scotland. It will be remembered that two parties in the city sought to
influence the Government of the day for different ends. One party was
composed of the religious, while the other represented the unsectarian
element, and by both memorials were sent to Parliament urging the claims
of Scotland to a more comprehensive system of national education. Mr.
Anderson, of course, espoused the cause of the unsectarian party, who
went in for compulsory education; and he addressed a meeting in the City
Hall, at which several resolutions approving of an unsectarian as
opposed to a religious scheme of education were passed by a considerable
majority of those present. The Reform Bill of 1868 gave Glasgow a third
member, and Mr. Anderson was fixed upon as the most suitable
representative of the interests of labour. His candidature, which as we
have already indicated, had been invited by the Reform Leaguers and
Trades Delegates of the city, was warmly supported by the working
classes. A three-cornered constituency, the electors of Glasgow could
only vote for two candidates; and as there was a Tory in the field, in
the person of Sir George Campbell, it became a rather nice question as
to how the three Liberal candidates were to be returned. The Liberal
party were equal to the emergency. They agreed to vote for the two
lowest candidates on the list throughout the polling, irrespective
altogether of personal predilections or sympathies in favour of either.
In this way the battle was won in the Liberal interest, and Glasgow
vindicated her claim to be esteemed the most Liberal constituency in the
kingdom. At the close of the poll, the return was as follows:--
Robert Dalglish, 18,287
W. Graham, 18,062
G. Anderson, 17,803
Sir G. Campbell, Bart., 10,812
Since he entered Parliament, Mr. Anderson has amply justified the choice
of his constituents. He stands in the front rank of advanced Liberals,
and is in favour of "Reform being carried to its fullest extent, by
three-cornerism being abolished, by dispensing with the payment of
rates, and by adopting the Ballot." Retired altogether from private
business, Mr. Anderson has every facility, apart from his bent and
disposition, for taking an active and intelligent part in public
affairs, and he has approved himself a most industrious and zealous
legislator. No man is closer in his attendance on the House of Commons.
During his first session in Parliament he was present at 128 out of 160
divisions; his second year in Parliament, though he was away ill for a
month, was marked by a scarcely less scrupulous and regular attention to
his duties, for he was present at 171 out of 264 divisions; and in his
third session he was present at 262 out of 270.
Mr. Anderson made his maiden speech in Parliament on the 3rd day of
March, 1869. The occasion was the second reading of Mr. Fawcett's
Election Expenses Bill, which proposed to throw the expenses of
elections on the ratepayers. In the course of his address, which was
listened to with the utmost attention, Mr. Anderson said--"To the great
bulk of those whom he addressed, the payment of £200 or £300 was in all
probability a matter of trifling importance; but undoubtedly the
necessity for incurring even that expense had a great effect in limiting
the field from which constituencies might choose their members; and if
the House were anxious to avoid the charge of desiring to keep
Parliamentary honours and political power in the possession of one
class--namely, the class of very wealthy men--they must legislate in the
direction proposed by the hon. member for Brighton (Mr. Fawcett). It
should be remembered that in limiting the field from which
constituencies might choose their members, the House thereby tended to
limit its own intellectual power."
Again, in Committee of Supply on the army estimates, Mr. Anderson
addressed the House on the 11th March, 1869; and on the 17th June, 1869,
he electrified the "Colonels" of the House by declaring, while speaking
of the great expense of the non-effective services and pensions, that
"he thought the whole system of pay and pensions in the army was rotten
and wrong.... Officers ought to provide for old age out of their
incomes, and even if their pay were proportionately increased, the
service would gain in efficiency if the change made it less
aristocratic, by throwing it open to men without private fortunes, who
must live on their pay." Mr. Anderson has persistently, both in season
and out of season, kept "pegging away" at the bugbear of Army Reform,
and on the 2d August, 1870, he attacked the abuse of sinecure Colonels,
and abuses in the higher branches of the army; such as the Colonelcies
held by the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, the chief military
secretary, and others. Mr. Cardwell, in his reply, alleged that these
were honorary, but was afterwards obliged to admit that the Prince and
the Duke were each paid for one colonelcy, the former £1350, and the
latter £2200. He moved large reductions in the salaries of the
commander-in-chief and the military secretary, in respect of their
holding incomes from colonelcies, and repeated his motion in 1871.
Although he was defeated in these motions, the result has been the
restriction of the salary of the military secretary by £700 a year, and
a prospective reduction of the commander-in-chief's by £450 at next
vacancy. But it is hardly to be expected that these reductions will
induce Mr. Anderson to desist from further attempts in the same
direction. In 1871 he was selected to second Mr. Trevelyan's motion on
army reform, and in speaking on that occasion he again attacked the
sinecure colonelcies and other abuses in the administration of the army.
He systematically opposes all increase of expenditure, particularly on
the army, and in 1870, on the outbreak of the Franco-German war, when
Government asked a vote of two millions for increased army expenditure,
he was one of a minority of seven who opposed it. In the debate on the
abolition of purchase, Mr. Anderson denounced the injustice of razing
over regulation prices, and thus rewarding men for knowingly breaking
the law. He pointed out that it would lead to officers getting not one,
but two over regulation prices, and he afterwards supported Mr. Ryland's
motion against that payment.
It is, however, to his Wages Arrestment Act and the Citation Amendment
(Scotland) Act that Mr. Anderson stands indebted for his prestige and
popularity as a legislator. The first of these is the bill which he
introduced last session with the object of limiting the arrestment of
wages. In Glasgow, and elsewhere throughout Scotland, the provisions of
the measure were discussed with a good deal of personal feeling--one
party arguing that the security afforded to shopkeepers by the power of
arresting wages enabled them to give credit to working men when they
could not otherwise venture to do so; while another class contended that
extravagance and distress were the results of too easy access to credit.
The general impression, however, appears to be that the bill will be
productive of the most beneficial results both to the small shopkeepers
and to their customers--the two classes most directly interested in its
operation.
In reference to the Citation Amendment (Scotland) Act, which has put an
end to keyhole citations in small debt cases throughout Scotland, we may
remark that Mr. Anderson aimed, in introducing this measure, at the
amelioration of the poorer classes, on whom the keyhole system pressed
with undue severity. Previous to the passing of the new Act the officer
appointed to serve a summons was permitted--if he did not find the
defender at home, or could not obtain access to his house--to place the
summons in the keyhole, after six knocks at the door, or to affix it to
the gate; and whilst many accidents might readily occur to prevent its
reaching the hands of the proper party, it was also not unfrequent for
some one interested to take it away, and thus a decree in absence was
too readily obtained.
In the Trades' Union and Criminal Amendment Bills he attempted several
amendments on behalf of the working man, and was successful in some,
particularly in excluding the jurisdiction of Justices of Peace from
such cases in Scotland, which renders that Act less oppressive in
Scotland than it is in England.
We may briefly indicate, in reference to the rest of Mr. Anderson's
Parliamentary career, that he has voted in favour of Mr. Mundella's
motion against the increase of the Army Estimates. He has supported the
bill for the legalizing of marriage with a deceased wife's sister, and
voted in favour of the Irish Church and Land Bills. On the 9th May,
1871, he voted in favour of Mr. Miall's proposed resolution for the
disestablishment of the Church of England; while as cognate to this
subject, we may add, that he has opposed Mr. M'Laren's Annuity Tax
(Edinburgh) Bill, as well as the Church Rates (Scotland) Bill; though,
in speaking to his constituents in 1871, he claimed to have been the
means of bringing about the settlement of the Annuity Tax question.
During the last two sessions he has repeatedly called the attention of
the Home Secretary to the prevalence and results of betting
advertisements, and urged the need of further legislation. On mercantile
subjects Mr. Anderson is considered somewhat of an authority, and in
1869, when the English Bankruptcy Bill came on, his knowledge of the
Scotch system, which the English commercial members wished to adopt, was
of some use, and enabled him to take a considerable share in the
discussion of the clauses, and to carry a number of amendments, though
failing in some important ones, he has taken an active part also in
amending the Assurance Companies Bill, and in almost every discussion
bearing upon the commercial relations of the country. Speaking against
Mr. Delahunty's Money Law (Ireland) Bill in the session of 1869, he
declared with reference to the proposed abolition of small notes in
Ireland, that "if the House came to the conclusion that small notes
ought to be abolished in Ireland, a proposal to abolish them also in
Scotland would probably follow; and that it was only with the assistance
of her small notes that Scotland had maintained her place in commerce
and manufactures by the side of so enormously wealthy a country as
England." It is worthy of note that Mr. Anderson is a convert to the
abolition of the game laws, which until the session of 1870 he had
wished to see only amended, not repealed. He is also in favour of the
abolition of the laws of entail and hypothec. Mr. Anderson seems to have
a thorough detestation of anything like jobbery. He has several times,
by judicious questions in the House, succeeded in stopping a job--such,
for instance, as the Colonel Shute scandal, and the proposed pension to
the Military Secretary--and though he is a general supporter of Mr.
Gladstone's Government he never hesitates either to vote or to speak
against them when he thinks them wrong; and as no Government can see any
merit in merely supporting them when they are right, he is naturally no
great favourite in high quarters.
Mr. Anderson voted against any grant to Prince Arthur, and explained
that he "thought it unfair that savings by the abolition of old offices
on the civil list should go to the Crown, while the burden of
establishing new princes was to be thrown on the people." He has also
voted in a minority of four in favour of Sir Charles Dilke's motion for
enquiring into the expenditure, under the various classes prescribed by
the Civil List Act, declining to accept the general opinion that the
vote was a Republican vote, merely because Sir C. Dilke moved it, and as
a protest against the Government for refusing the information, and the
Opposition Benches for endeavouring to howl down the motion.
Mr. Anderson's speeches are always short, unadorned, and practical. He
has endeavoured, by moving a resolution, to reduce the inordinate length
of the speeches in the House as the only way of saving time to get
through the yearly increasing work of legislation, and he has proposed
some other resolutions for facilitating the business of the House.
SIR JAMES CAMPBELL.
Glasgow cannot lay claim to a hereditary aristocracy. She has, however,
what is infinitely better for the purposes of commercial, political, and
social progress--an aristocracy of energy, talent, and moral worth.
There are very few of her merchants and manufacturers who have not been
the architects of their own fortune. The pioneers of her industrial
prosperity do not build their aspirations and hopes upon a few broad
acres, or a pedigree stretching backwards to the time of William the
Conqueror. These maybe fine things in their way, and, like an antique
jewel, they may serve very well to wear on special occasions, or to
treasure as an antiquary would do some rare coin or "auld nick-nacket."
But the magnates of Glasgow have a juster and more legitimate cause for
pride; their ambition is of a less ornamental, but far more useful kind.
The Youngs, the Napiers, the Elders, the Campbells, and the Bairds are,
after all, your true and permanent nobility. All that is not the direct
result of merit and industry can only induce vanity and vexation of
spirit. It is no uncommon thing to hear men who have been pitchforked
into an affluent position--whose progenitors may have taken part in the
"forty-five"--to go no further back--look with disdain upon the
pretensions of those who have, within the short span of a single
lifetime, realised a colossal fortune. But Catullus has truly said that
there's "nothing so foolish as the laugh of fools," and many men still
require to be taught that--
"Honour and fame from no condition rise,"
although the fact is every day patent to the most casual observation.
Sir James Campbell belongs to a family who have secured a right to a
permanent place in the annals of the West of Scotland. In commerce, in
politics, in matters ecclesiastical, they have been alike conspicuous.
Born at the Port of Menteith, in Perthshire, Sir James is one of three
brothers who went forth into the world and distinguished themselves, not
less by their success as merchants, than by the honour and integrity of
all their transactions. The father of the family was a farmer, who
occupied the small farm of Inchanoch, in Menteith--as his ancestors for
three generations before him had done--the produce accruing from which
was scarcely sufficient to provide in an adequate degree for the
maintenance of a numerous family. While his sons were yet young, he
removed with his family to Glasgow, which was even then considered an
inviting field for all who possessed energy, industry, and ability to
work. Here James became connected in partnership with a tailor named
Paterson, the father, we believe, of a well-known tradesman now in
Glasgow. For some years they carried on business together in Brunswick
Street, but fortune frowned upon their efforts, and the firm was
dissolved. Subsequently James entered into partnership with his brother
William, who had been engaged for some years in a small drapery shop in
High Street, and the brothers established themselves in business in the
Saltmarket. Their business was at this time in a very humble way--their
operations being confined for the most part to supplying basket-women
and hawkers with cotton goods, such as handkerchiefs and pinafores. By
dint of unwearied energy and attention to business the brothers were
enabled, in course of time, to extend their ramifications so far as to
build a large warehouse in Candleriggs, which they continued to occupy
for many years, and in which they conducted an extensive wholesale
business as well as retail. The eldest brother, John, who had been for
some years in America, had charge of the retail department of the
concern. There are several features of the business as carried on at
this time that deserve to be noticed. In the first place, they were the
first to set their face against the objectionable system of "prigging,"
which up to that time had prevailed to a greater or less extent in every
description of retail business. Their goods were all ticketed with a
certain figure, the lowest that they could possibly be sold at so as to
leave a fair margin of profit, and from this price nothing would induce
them to make any abatement. Adopting the Horatian maxim, they "kept one
consistent plan from end to end." The result was that goods which in
another establishment would be quoted at 2s 6d or 2s 8d, were sold by
Messrs. Campbell for 1s 6d or 1s 9d, being less than they could generally
be obtained for elsewhere, even after a customer had spent his ingenuity
and breath in half-an-hour's "prigging." The advantages to be obtained
at Messrs. Campbell's establishment soon became known, and although it
required a great effort to induce thrifty housewives to desist from
attempting to cheapen and "prig" down their goods, Messrs. Campbell
ultimately succeeded in putting a stop to the practice, so far at least
as their own establishment was concerned. Since then, their example has
been followed by all the other respectable drapers and warehousemen
throughout the city, so that a child of tender years can now be
entrusted to make a purchase without the slightest risk of being
overcharged or imposed upon. In connection with their warehouse in
Candleriggs, the firm for many years carried on warping mills in the
upper flats, being thus manufacturers as well as merchants. Before
leaving Candleriggs, however, and entering upon their present extensive
premises in Ingram Street, which they opened in 1856, they had abandoned
the manufacturing department of their business, and confined themselves
exclusively to buying and selling. Such were the beginnings of a concern
which, at the present day, is surpassed by none, and equalled by few in
the city of Glasgow, and such were the circumstances under which the two
brothers laid the foundations of a reputation for sterling integrity and
worth, which has given their family a leading place in the West of
Scotland. It may be mentioned that in 1842 they opened an additional
retail warehouse in Buchanan Street, under the firm of Campbell &
Co.--a business afterwards disposed of to Neilson, Shaw, & M'Gregor; and
that the retail business in Candleriggs Street was disposed of to Donald
& Sellar.
With reference to Sir James's public career a great deal might be
written, and yet the gist of it might be comprised in a few sentences.
Both he and his brother William, so well known as Mr. Campbell of
Tillichewan, were for a long time members of the Town Council, and Sir
James occupied for the statutory period of three years--from 1840 to
1843--the position of Lord Provost. It was while Sir James filled the
civic chair that the heir apparent to the Throne was born, and to mark
the occurrence of such an important event, as well as in recognition of
the active part which he took in connection with the festivities and
demonstrations that happened in Glasgow to celebrate the same, he
received from her Majesty the honour of knighthood. In 1837, he had come
forward as a candidate for the representation of the city, conjointly
with Mr. Monteith of Carstairs; but as he stood in the Conservative
interest, and as Glasgow, even at that distance of time, was a Radical
constituency, he was, despite his great local influence, defeated by a
considerable majority. His opponents on this occasion were Lord William
Bentinck, Mr. John Dennistoun, and Mr. Robert Monteith; and after a hard
struggle the election terminated with the following result:--
Lord William Bentinck, 2767
John Dennistoun, 2743
Robert Monteith, 2121
James Campbell, 2090
Again in 1841, while Lord Provost, he was an unsuccessful candidate for
the representation of the city, the poll terminating as follows:--
James Oswald, 2776
John Dennistoun, 2728
James Campbell, 2416
George Mills, 355
In every movement having for its object the promotion of the interests
and well-being of Glasgow, Sir James has taken an active and useful
part. Politically, his support and influence have had an important
bearing upon the fortunes of the Conservative party in the West of
Scotland; and to the Established Church, of which he has all along been
a steadfast and warm adherent, he has contributed unwearied service.
On the 14th January, 1868, Sir James was entertained at a banquet in the
Corporation Galleries in recognition of his private worth and his public
services as a citizen of Glasgow. The banquet was so far official that
the Lord Provost occupied the chair, and he was supported by most of the
leading men of Glasgow. In proposing the health of Sir James, the Lord
Provost (Sir James Lumsden) declared that he had "for many years taken
an active part, and still takes a deep interest in all municipal
affairs;" and added, "he is well known as a warm and attached friend, a
judicious counsellor, ever ready not only to lend his name and open his
purse in the furtherance of all measures leading to the improvement of
his fellow-citizens, but by taking such an active part in their
management as shows his earnestness in accomplishing whatever he takes
in hand." In the course of his speech, the Lord Provost also mentioned
the interesting fact that, entering the Council in 1831, Sir James was
one of the four surviving members of that body who presided over
municipal affairs prior to the passing of the Borough Reform Bill--Mr.
William Smith, Mr. William Brown, and Mr. Thomas Douglas being the other
three.
Lady Campbell is a daughter of the late Mr. Henry Bannerman of
Manchester, founder of the well-known firm of Henry Bannerman & Sons. It
is a coincidence worthy of notice that the progenitors of the Bannerman
family, with whom throughout the greater part of his life Sir James has
been so closely identified, were also Perthshire farmers, occupying a
comparatively humble rank in life.
Of Sir James Campbell's family, the eldest son, Mr. James A. Campbell,
younger of Stracathro (who is married to a daughter of Sir Morton Peto,
the eminent contractor), now administers his father's interest in the
business. His other and younger son, Mr. Henry Campbell, has, since 1868,
represented the Stirling Burghs in Parliament, and now occupies a
responsible post in the Government of his country as Financial Secretary
in the War Office.
In his private capacity, Sir James is genial, accessible, and full of
dry, pawky humour. He is in his proper element when entertaining a
company of his friends, either at his town residence in Bath Street, or
at his more delightful country mansion of Stracathro, near Brechin.
Although upwards of eighty years of age, he is in the full possession of
all his faculties, his sight alone excepted, and even his sense of
vision is sufficiently retained to enable him to find his way in the
most crowded thoroughfares of the city.
MR. JAMES YOUNG OF KELLY.
The whole range of industrial biography does not present a more signally
successful career than that of Mr. James Young; nor can we find, in all
the annals of aspiring genius, a more wonderful example of the ultimate
triumph of mind over matter.
The origin of the inventor of paraffin oil was comparatively obscure. He
was born in the Drygate of Glasgow--a street on which the operations of
the City Improvement Trust have effected a wonderful
transformation--where his father was a working cabinetmaker. After
receiving what little schooling his parents were able to afford, Mr.
Young commenced to assist his father--who had by this time established
himself as his own master in the Calton--and while so employed he took
to the study of Chemistry. For some time he attended the lectures of
Professor Graham, the late Master of the Mint (to whom a monument has
been erected by his illustrious pupil in George Square) at the
Andersonian University, and he showed such aptitude for science, that in
a remarkably short time he became Mr. Graham's class assistant. In this
capacity Mr. Young continued for seven years, and, as his subsequent
career amply showed, he did not fail to improve his opportunities. After
leaving the Andersonian, he followed Mr. Graham to London, when the
latter was appointed to the Professorship of Chemistry in London
University, and he continued to be associated with his old friend and
master until he accepted the position of manager of Muspratt's Chemical
Works at Newton, near Liverpool. Here he continued for four-and-a-half
years, improving, of course, his acquaintance with the practical
bearings of his favourite science, especially in regard to the
manufacture of alkali and bleaching powder, the staple products of
Muspratt's works. Mr. Young afterwards removed to Manchester, where he
undertook a responsible position in Tennant's Chemical Works--a branch
of Tennant's of Glasgow. This would be in the year 1843. While employed
in Manchester he received from Dr. Lyon Playfair, whose acquaintance he
had made while in the Andersonian University, a communication with
reference to the existence of a petroleum spring in Derbyshire. This may
almost be said to have been the turning point in Mr. Young's career. Dr.
Playfair stated that in his brother-in-law's coal mine in Derbyshire
there was a large quantity of petroleum, and he proposed that Mr. Young
should investigate the mine, and judge if anything could be made out of
it. A commission so responsible, and involving the exercise of so much
scientific skill, was just suited to Mr. Young's fancy. He went and
examined the springs, found petroleum dropping from the roof of the mine
over the coal, and the result was that he took a lease of the spring,
and worked the petroleum with the view to making it profitable. We may
here explain that petroleum is of different kinds, although in all its
diverse forms it retains the same qualities. It is an oleagenous
substance, naturally evolved from the earth, and may be found in all
degrees of thickness, from a very light substance found in some parts of
Persia, to a thick viscid substance more indigenous to Britain. Before
taking a lease of the petroleum spring, Mr. Young suggested the
advisability of Tennant's people taking it up, but they said it was too
small a matter for them. Mr. Young, however, in 1848, commenced to work
the spring for himself, producing two different oils--one a thick oil
for lubricating, and the other a thin oil for lamp burning. In course of
time it became evident that the petroleum was almost worked out, and Mr.
Young directed his attention to finding an artificial substitute for the
natural oil. He had previously held the idea that the petroleum might be
produced by the action of heat on the coal and the vapour going up into
the sandstone to be condensed. He made a great many experiments in
retorts, with the view of testing the practicability of this idea, and
the results obtained were very various. He had no fixed data to guide
him, and he sometimes got one thing, sometimes another. At last,
however, success rewarded his labours, and he was entitled to
exclaim--"Eureka!" Out of a cannel that came to be mixed with soda ash
he obtained a quantity of liquid that contained paraffin. In the
beginning of 1850, Mr. Bartholomew, of the City and Suburban Gas Works,
Glasgow, showed Mr. Young some specimens of the Boghead coal, with which
he renewed his experiments, distilling the mineral at a low temperature,
until he evolved a considerable quantity of crude paraffin. Ultimately,
Mr. Young, Mr. Meldrum, and Mr. Binney, to whom the discovery was
imparted at the Edinburgh meeting of the British Association, in 1850,
resolved on erecting works at Bathgate, in the centre of the Torbanehill
coal district, for the manufacture of paraffin. Before setting out on
this venture, however, Mr. Young took care to protect his invention by
securing a patent. In 1851 the Bathgate works, which originally
consisted of only two or three retorts, were set agoing, and from that
time until the present hour their success has been uninterrupted. It is
worth while mentioning that Mr. Young, during the whole course of his
experiments, derived no advice or assistance whatever from the
experience or conclusions of others who had preceded him in the same
phase of chemical science, and that he had never either heard of or seen
Reichenbach's letter to Dumas, upon which the claims of the German
chemist to have been the original discoverer of paraffin were based. It
is now generally admitted that Reichenbach was the real discoverer of
paraffin. He found it as an ingredient in the tar obtained by distilling
beechwood, as far back as 1830. What Reichenbach only dreamed about and
hoped for, however, Mr. Young practically realised; and to our townsman
is due the credit of having been the first to prepare paraffin as a
commercial article from mineral sources.
The exact nature and properties of shale was the subject of a remarkable
trial in the Court of Session soon after Mr. Young began to work the raw
material at Bathgate. The proprietor of the estate of Torbanehill, Mr.
Gillespie, disputed with the lessee, Mr. Russell, of Falkirk, affirming
that the valuable mineral called shale was not _coal_, and that the
working of it was therefore not included in Mr. Russell's lease.
Subsequently, Mr. Young had several lawsuits against parties who had
infringed his patent, one being an action against the Clydesdale
Chemical Company, in which, the jury gave a unanimous verdict for Mr.
Young, the defendants paying large sums as costs and damages. Another
was an action against Mr. E. W. Ferney, of Saltney, near Chester, who
had established works on Mr. Young's principle, and would not be bound
by the decisions pronounced in previous cases. In the spring of 1864,
after a trial which lasted nearly forty days, judgment was again given
in favour of Mr. Young, who claimed £15,000 of professional expenses
alone, in addition to a royalty of 3d. per gallon of oil made in
contravention of his patent rights.
The monopoly carried on by Mr. Young and his partners was broken down in
October, 1864, by the expiry of the patent rights, and the dissolution
of the partnership, and the Bathgate works subsequently passed into the
hands of a limited liability company, by whom they are still owned and
controlled, Mr. Young continuing to hold a large share, and the position
of general manager. The amount paid for the works and plant by the new
company was £450,000, and we believe Mr. Young took shares to the extent
of one-fourth of that amount; Mr. Pender, of Minard, the next largest
shareholder, holding stock to the extent of £70,000 more. The idea of
erecting new works on a larger scale, and with more improved and modern
appliances, in the West Calder district, was meanwhile conceived by Mr.
Young. He selected a site on the estate of Addiewell, a mile west from
the village of West Calder, extending to fully fifty acres of ground.
Here he erected works that are still unrivalled in point of extent, and
of which it may be said that they form an apt commentary on their
projector's energy, intelligence, and enterprise. There being no
accommodation in West Calder for a large body of workpeople, Mr. Young's
first care was to erect suitable dwelling-houses. Very soon a new
village of respectable proportions sprang into being, and the chemical
works were pushed forward with equal celerity. The arrangement of
Addiewell Chemical Works is admirably calculated for their purpose. They
cover nearly a half of the entire site, the buildings as well as the
mechanical appliances being on a gigantic scale. The retort sheds are
upwards of 200 yards in length taken together, and each shed contains a
double row of retorts. Altogether, there are no less than 354 retorts,
capable of distilling more than 3000 tons of shale per week, and
producing 120,000 gallons of crude oil, which yields 50,000 to 60,000
gallons of burning oil, in addition to about 12 tons of refined paraffin
oil and a large quantity of lubricating oil. Each of the condensers
contains several miles of piping. The main pipe, which collects the
vapours from the retorts, is nearly a yard in diameter. One and a
quarter million cubic feet of gas are manufactured at the works every
day. Upwards of 1000 hands are employed. In the shale-pits adjoining,
four hundred miners are regularly at work. The pits are conveniently
near to the Addiewell Works, none of them being more than two miles off.
A network of railway lines communicate with the various shale-pits, and
five locomotives are regularly employed in the transit of minerals. A
school, under Government inspection, is attached to the works, and the
employés are exceptionably well off for house accommodation.
Within the limits of this article we cannot do full justice to the
enormous industry of which Mr. Young is the founder. It is even claimed
for Mr. Young's little factory at Alfreton that it was the parent, not
only of the Scotch mineral oil trade, but also of that of America; for
oil had never been distilled to produce an article of commerce until he
commenced to work his patent there. From such a small beginning has
arisen, within the short space of twenty-three years, one of the most
important and extensive industries in the world. At the present time
there are in Scotland altogether 65 oil-works, at 17 of which crude oil
is manufactured and refined ready for the market. At 38 other works the
crude oil alone is produced, and although most of the crude oil so made
is refined at other works in Scotland, a not inconsiderable quantity is
sent to the Welsh refiners, while some of it is sent to the Continent.
Of the remaining works, 16 refine the crude oil only. There are
altogether 3804 retorts in operation, both vertical and horizontal. It
is a moot point, which is now engaging the attention of those in the
trade, whether vertical or horizontal retorts are the best suited for
the purposes in view. At Mr. Young's works, which are the largest and
most important in Scotland, nothing but vertical retorts are used, it
being considered that they possess an advantage over the horizontal kind
in respect of their continuous feeding, but the latter are likewise very
largely used. Of the 3404 retorts, however, there are seldom more than
3000 at work together. The remainder are usually standing idle, on
account of repairs or some other cause. The average weekly production of
crude oil at the Scotch works is nearly 120,000 gallons, and the number
of men engaged in the trade in its various departments is estimated at
little short of 6500. Assuming, as we may fairly do, that 3000 retorts
are regularly at work, they will yield 21,800,000 gallons of crude oil,
and distil 730,000 tons of shale annually; or, in other words, they will
distil 13,000 to 14,000 tons of shale weekly. From the crude oil thus
distilled there will be produced something like 10,000,000 gallons of
refined burning oil annually, besides crude solid paraffin, and other
products, such as naptha and lubricating oils. It is further calculated
that the average wages paid in connection with this industry will reach
between £400,000 and £500,000 per annum. The districts in which the
manufacture is carried on are situated in Midlothian, Ayrshire,
Lanarkshire, Fifeshire, and Linlithgowshire. The largest works are in
the Midlothian and Linlithgowshire districts, the Fifeshire and Ayrshire
works being comparatively limited in extent, and chiefly confined to the
manufacture of crude oil. Some of the principal works have been
considerably extended of late.
Mr. Young is distinguished for his public munificence and private
philanthropy. Many a young man who has attained a respectable and
influential position is indebted to Mr. Young for his first start in
life. As a ready and effectual means towards promoting a thirst for
knowledge, and an acquaintance with the practical bearings of the
science to which he is himself so much indebted, he founded, about three
years ago, a chair of technical chemistry in the Andersonian University.
Previously the students attending the chemistry classes under the late
Professor Penny had no opportunity of making themselves familiar with
the application of the principles of the science to arts and
manufactures; a knowledge of the principles themselves was all that they
could attain. A man may be the greatest proficient in the knowledge of
the principles of chemical science, and yet be utterly ignorant of how
bleaching powder, chromate of potash, or soda are made. Thus it was with
the Chemical Chair at the Andersonian until Mr. Young, by his munificent
bequest of £10,000 for the foundation of a Chair of Technical Chemistry,
established a connection between the scientific chemist and the
workshop. The first occupant of the chair, Herr Bischof, commenced his
duties during last summer, and the number of students attending his
class has already exceeded all expectations. The foundation of nine
bursaries, each worth £50 per annum, is certainly an inducement to
perseverance which is not every day placed within the reach of poor
students; and considering the multiform phases of chemical science, and
the comparatively limited extent to which they have hitherto been
developed, there is no saying to what results Mr. Young's bequest may
serve to lead.
Although so far advanced in life, Mr. Young continues to labour with as
much zest and enthusiasm as ever in the field of chemistry. It is to him
a labour of love. His mind is of that vigorous and active disposition
that cannot indulge in the repose to which the successful labours of an
arduous life invariably lead. Within the last few months he has given to
the world a new process for the manufacture of soda, which will probably
introduce an important revolution in the manufacture of alkali, and
enable carbonate of soda to be produced at something like one-fourth of
its present cost.
It is a fitting recognition and reward of Mr. Young's great discoveries
and enterprise that he should have amassed one of the largest fortunes
that was ever realized by individual effort within a similarly short
period. Some years ago he acquired the beautiful estate of Kelly, at
Wemyss Bay, which he has greatly improved and adorned. He owns also one
of the most handsome yachts on the Clyde, which has been named the
"Nyanza," in honour of Mr. Young's most intimate friend--Dr.
Livingstone, the African traveller. Dr. Livingstone and Mr. Young were
fellow-students at the Andersonian University, and their friendship has
remained unbroken since that time. It is interesting to note that it was
Dr. Livingstone who laid the foundation-stone of Mr. Young's new works
at West Calder, and it was a brother of Dr. Kirk of Zanzibar who
superintended the Addiewell works for some time after they were built.
Mr. Young has never taken any active part in political or municipal
affairs, but he is identified with various scientific and literary
societies; and for the last four years he has been President of the
Andersonian University. In social life he is kindly, warm-hearted, and
genial; and these qualities shine most conspicuously in his own family
circle, or while he is entertaining a company of his numerous friends.
MR. GEORGE BURNS.
The commercial annals of the West of Scotland are full of interest. They
illustrate a prosperity that is almost without parallel. Macaulay's New
Zealander is not likely to plant his foot on Glasgow Bridge for many
generations to come, or if he does he will witness a scene totally
unlike that for which the historian had prepared him. In all our staple
industries we are advancing with gigantic strides. Shipping and
shipbuilding are especially conspicuous for their steady and rapid
development. As a shipping port Glasgow stands second to none in the
United Kingdom, Liverpool alone excepted. It was not always so. So late
as the beginning of the eighteenth century there were only about a dozen
vessels belonging to the port, their aggregate tonnage amounting to no
more than 1000 tons. More than any other river in the world, the Clyde
has triumphed over natural obstacles and drawbacks. Originally the
estuary of the Clyde was so shallow that no vessel of any size could
come further up than Port-Glasgow. It was considered a great achievement
when, in 1801, craft of 40 tons burden were enabled to touch at the
Broomielaw. A story is told of a daring navigator who, towards the close
of last century, built a vessel of 30 tons burden for the purpose of
exploring "the wee bit burn ca'd the Clyde." As a reward for his
enterprise and daring, he was presented with the freedom of the city on
reaching the harbour of Glasgow. Thanks to the fostering care and
ceaseless exertions of the Clyde Navigation Trustees, vessels of the
largest tonnage can now come up to the Broomielaw; and the port of
Glasgow can lay claim to some of the largest and most magnificent
merchant vessels afloat. A rare conjunction of private and public
enterprise brought about these results. From the time that Henry Bell's
_Comet_ appeared on the scene in 1812, until the present, the Clyde has
occupied a pre-eminent position in the records of the progress of steam
navigation. In 1841 the number of vessels belonging to the port of
Glasgow was 431, with an aggregate of 95,619 tons. At the present time
there are 895 vessels belonging to the port, their total tonnage being
433,016 tons! These figures speak for themselves. They do not indicate a
merely natural evolution. Hard work, skilful and energetic application
of available resources, and well concerted plans, were necessary to
bring about such an era of prosperity; and these conditions of success
were supplied by such men as Mr. George Burns, who has been identified
most closely for more than half-a-century with this branch of commerce.
Belonging to a family which has long occupied an honourable position in
the West of Scotland, Mr. George Burns has reason to be proud of his
ancestors. His grandfather, whose name was originally Burn, inherited a
small property near Stirling, which he sold and came to reside in
Glasgow. Here he distinguished himself as a scholar, and published an
English dictionary and grammar which was long used in all the schools
and academies throughout the country. He died at the age of eighty-four,
and his time carries us back to the beginning of last century. He used
to tell of seeing combatants in the battle of "Shirra Muir" pass his
father's place in 1715. His son, Dr. Burns, who was an only child,
remembered being carried in his nurse's arms to the King's Park at
Stirling, where he saw encamped the Hessians who had been employed in
the unsuccessful rising in favour of Prince Charles in 1745, and who
remained in this country for some time subsequently. Dr. Burns, born in
1714, was minister of the Barony parish, in Glasgow, for the long period
of seventy-two years, dying in 1839, in his ninety-sixth year. He
preached in the crypt of the Cathedral, which Sir Walter Scott has made
famous in the pages of "Rob Roy," and at a time when such qualities were
rare in the Church of Scotland, he was distinguished for the evangelical
faithfulness of his preaching, and for his conscientious and laborious
performance of pastoral work. In the prosecution of his duties he
established and conducted Sabbath schools in Calton, which was included
in his parish. These, as far as is known, were the first Sunday schools
instituted in Scotland, and it is believed were before the time of Mr.
Raikes, who began the system in England. At the time above mentioned the
population of the Barony parish did not exceed 8000, but long before the
death of Dr. Burns it had increased more than tenfold. One of the most
unselfish and simple-hearted of men, he brought up a large family upon a
small stipend, refusing for a long time to ask an augmentation from the
Tiend Court, until his scruples were overborne by the pressing
entreaties of his heritors. This venerable patriarch lived to see the
blessing of his Covenant-God, and the reward of his own training, in the
highly honourable and successful career of his family. He had nine
children, of whom four died in early life. The remaining five
were--John, born in 1775; Allan, born in 1781; Elizabeth, born in 1786;
James, born in 1788; and the youngest, the only one of the family now
living, George, born in 1795. The eldest son--Dr. John Burns,
F.R.S.--was the first Professor of Surgery in the University of Glasgow.
He was a man of extensive erudition and devoted piety. He wrote several
standard medical works, which secured for him the high honour of being
elected a member of the Institute of France, and also several most
excellent religious works, one of which, entitled "Christian
Philosophy," is still popular. His sad death, by drowning, in the wreck
of the steamer Orion, in 1850, will be well remembered. The second
son--Allan--was the intimate friend of Sir Astley Cooper, Bart., the
celebrated surgeon. He went to St. Petersburg, where he became physician
to the Empress of Russia, from whom he received valuable presents and
honourable distinctions. Returning to Glasgow, he lectured on anatomy,
and prosecuted his profession with great success. He died at the early
age of thirty-two, in consequence of a wound received while dissecting.
But short as was his career, he succeeded in acquiring a European
reputation by his scientific writings. James and George, both of whom
possessed much of the native talent of the family, found ample scope for
their abilities in mercantile pursuits, and about the year 1818 they
entered into partnership and commenced business in Glasgow. In 1824 they
became owners, along with the late Hugh Matthie of Liverpool, of six
sailing vessels trading between that port and Glasgow, and in the same
year they engaged in steam navigation between Glasgow and Belfast.
Shortly thereafter they substituted steam for sailing vessels in the
Glasgow and Liverpool trade, and in 1830 they amalgamated this concern
with that of the Messrs. MacIver of Liverpool. The various trades thus
organised comprised branches between Glasgow and Liverpool, Belfast,
Londonderry, and the West Highlands, but the last named business was
disposed of in 1852 to Mr. David Hutcheson, who long held a responsible
position in Messrs. Burns' office, and who was joined by his brother, Mr.
Alexander Hutcheson, and by Mr. David MacBrayne, a nephew of the Messrs
Burns. Under the firm of David Hutcheson & Co. the West Highland trade
has continued to be conducted with every satisfaction to the public. The
other branches are still carried on by Messrs. Burns & MacIver. While
James applied himself to the mercantile branch of the business, the
direction of the shipping department devolved upon George, whose energy
and sagacity rendered him well qualified for the onerous duties, and
under whose able management the business gradually developed into a
steam shipping concern second to none in the world.
In 1830 the establishment of mail steam communication between Britain
and North America was projected by Mr. Samuel Cunard, of Halifax, N.S.,
who, in prosecution of his undertaking, was introduced to Mr. Robert
Napier by Mr. Melvill, secretary in London to the East India Company,
and through whom he entered into conferences on the subject in Glasgow
with Mr. George Burns and Mr. David MacIver. The consultation resulted
in the undertaking since popularly known as the Cunard line, and Mr.
George Burns persuaded his brother to join in this, as he had in like
manner previously induced him to join in the establishment of steamers
between Glasgow and Liverpool. The contract for the conveyance of the
North American mails was entered into between the Admiralty on the one
part, and Samuel Cunard, George Burns, and David MacIver on the other
part; and the first steamer of the line, the _Britannia_, sailed from
Liverpool on 4th July, 1840, for Halifax and Boston. The means of
travelling between the mother country and America were previously very
inadequate. Although steam had come into pretty general use for coasting
purposes, it had been little applied to ocean voyages. The Cunard line
commenced with four paddle-wheel steamers, of an aggregate tonnage of
4602 tons. Now the company possess between 40 and 50 vessels afloat, or
in course of construction. Many of these are the most magnificent
merchant ships afloat. Some of them are over 4000 tons burden, and the
aggregate tonnage of the whole is close upon 90,000 tons.
It is not too much to affirm of the Cunard line, that it is the most
popular and successful Transatlantic service afloat. For upwards of
thirty years a Cunard Transatlantic steamer has sailed--at first once a
week, subsequently twice a week, and latterly three times a week--from
Liverpool, and another from New York or Boston. During that long period
many hundred thousand passengers have been carried by that noble fleet.
Yet, despite the dangers of the Atlantic, and the liability to accident
in a thousand ways of such a voyage, the Cunard line can thankfully say
that they have never lost a life--nay more, although they have had a
contract with the British Government since they started for the
conveyance of the North American mails, the company have never even lost
a letter! Such a claim cannot be made on behalf of any other line
afloat. But it would be quite a mistake to infer that this wonderful
exemption from misadventure is due to luck or chance. On the contrary,
the skilful management of the line has been the chief, if not the sole
cause of its matchless reputation. Every consideration of profit has
from the very outset been subordinated to a painstaking and anxious
regard for the efficiency of the fleet, and for the safety and comfort
of the passengers. Without a single exception, all the Cunard Liners are
noted for their seaworthy qualities, which have been admirably preserved
by the existence of the company's engineering works at Liverpool; and
the instructions for the navigation of the fleet are most complete and
peremptory. Thus, it will be seen that a combination of rare
administrative qualities, together with the intrinsic superiority of
their ships, have been the means of realising for the Cunard Company a
character which is altogether without a precedent, while the same causes
have imparted to the most timid passengers a confidence in the Cunard
line which they would not be justified in placing even in a railway
company. In short, the Cunard Company have brought about a condition of
things which our grandfathers could not have believed possible. They
have set at naught the dangers of the mighty deep, and rendered ocean
travelling more safe and interesting than travelling on the dry land.
Truly, those who have had the management of this gigantic business are
entitled to be regarded as the pioneers of a high standard of progress,
the highest standard, indeed, that has yet been attained, or is possible
of attainment, in the direction of one of the greatest ends of
civilisation--that of making the navigation of the ocean compatible with
perfect safety to human life. In illustration of the style of
management, it may be added that it has been the policy of those
conducting the business to keep abreast with the advancement of the age,
by constantly selling and replacing vessels as required. From first to
last they have sold considerably above 100 steamers.
The business of the Cunard Company, in its various branches, has from
its origin been carried on in Glasgow by Messrs. G. & J. Burns; in
Liverpool, by the energetic firm of Messrs. D. & C. MacIver; in Halifax,
N.S., by Messrs. S. Cunard & Co.; and in New York, by Sir Edward Cunard,
Bart. Mr. David MacIver died a few years after the formation of the
Cunard line, Sir Samuel Cunard, Bart., and his son Sir Edward, died more
recently; and James Burns and George Burns having retired several years
before the death of the former, which took place in September last, the
business devolved upon the two sons of George Burns--John Burns and
James Cleland Burns, of Glasgow; Charles MacIver, of Liverpool; and
William Cunard, formerly of Halifax, N.S., now of London, who remain the
sole partners of this gigantic concern, which is still further extending
its ramifications by the addition of a line of steamers between the
Clyde and the West Indies.
The subject of our memoir married, in 1822, the eldest daughter of the
late Dr. Cleland of Glasgow, a man who may be said to have been the
father of social and vital statistics in this country; for at the time
he published his works, "Annals of Glasgow," and "Statistical Tables,"
we believe that Sweden was the only country that laid claim to the
possession of regular statistics. Dr. Cleland was a member of the
Institute of France, and other scientific bodies. By his wife, who is
still alive, Mr. Burns has had seven children, of whom there only
survive the two sons who are now at the head of the business in Glasgow.
Mr. George Burns, soon after his retirement from business, purchased the
estate of Wemyss Bay, where he now spends the greater part of his time.
Mr. John Burns is possessor of the property of Castle Wemyss, where he
resides; and Mr. James Cleland Burns lives at his property of Glenlee,
near Hamilton.
Neither Mr. Burns, nor any of his family, have ever taken a prominent
part in politics, although their immense business experience and
conspicuous aptitude for controlling and directing their own unrivalled
private concern, would in all probability have qualified them for taking
a high place in the councils of the nation had they chosen to enter the
domain of politics. In their private capacities each and all of the
family have been distinguished for their ready and liberal support of
measures calculated to improve the moral, social, and religious
condition of their fellow-townsmen, and an appeal for support to a
deserving object has never been made to them in vain. Mr. George Burns
has always been ready to afford personal service and pecuniary
assistance to schemes of a benevolent or philanthropic character. The
name of Mr. John Burns is a "tower of strength" where there is a good
cause to be promoted. He rendered valuable service in assisting to
establish the Cumberland training ship--an institution which, in its
proved results, has done more than all the rest of our industrial
institutions put together to reform our street Arabs, and to inspire
them with higher aims and better motives in life. During the three years
that have elapsed since the Cumberland was brought to the Gareloch, Mr.
Burns has acted as its president, and in the midst of his own
multitudinous and incessant business duties he has not failed to bestow
upon its affairs great attention. As an honorary president of the
Foundry Boys' Religious Society, which embraces within its pale upwards
of 14,000 boys and girls in the humblest ranks of life, he has likewise
assisted very materially to promote the welfare of the city. For their
own servants the Messrs. Burns have displayed an exemplary solicitude.
They have provided a chapel in Glasgow for the sailors employed in their
coasting trade; and they defray the expenses connected with the support
of a chaplain, who visits the men on board ship, sailing with each
vessel in turn, and preaching in the chapel on Sundays. Through the
chaplain, who visits the wives and families of the sailors when they are
away on duty, the Messrs. Burns are made aware of the circumstances and
condition of the sailors in their employment, and they spare no trouble
to maintain an efficient and sober body of men in a happy and
comfortable position.
MR. JAMES BAIRD OF CAMBUSDOON.
"I cannot," wrote Bacon, "call riches better than the baggage of
virtue." Practically the dictum of the philosopher has been endorsed by
Mr. James Baird of Cambusdoon, who, along with his brothers who have
predeceased him, has set a noble example in regard to both the
acquisition and the distribution of wealth. Few men have been so
fortunate in laying up treasure on earth; few have been so zealous of
those good works which realise treasure on the other side of Time. For
nearly half a century the name of Baird has been a household word in the
West of Scotland. Ranking as they have done for many years as the
largest employers of labour in Scotland, they must ever continue to
occupy a foremost place in our commercial annals. But while they have
thus been "diligent in business," they have also been "fervent in
spirit." Possessing the power that belongs to wealth, they have not been
unmindful of its accompanying responsibilities and duties. In the
promotion of education, in the support of Church and missionary objects,
in aiding the amelioration of their less fortunate fellow-creatures, and
in the dispensation of that charity which covers a multitude of sins
they have made their vast wealth subordinate to the service of their day
and generation--the humble but yet potent means to the most beneficent
ends. By every consideration, therefore, the honoured name of Baird is
entitled to a place in these sketches.
Mr. James Baird of Cambusdoon is the only survivor of a family of eight
sons, whose ancestors for several generations followed the primitive
occupation of farming in the parish of Old Monkland. The father of the
proprietors of Gartsherrie Ironworks was tenant of Kirkwood, Newmains,
and High Cross farms. Of his numerous family, William, who died
recently, after having attained the rare distinction of a millionaire,
was the eldest, having been born in the year 1796; James, who was six
years his junior, was born in 1802. The older members of the family
received their education at the parish school of Old Monkland, under the
late Mr. Cowan--one of a class of teachers who were qualified to impart
something more than the mere rudiments of a solid classical education,
and who have assisted so materially to place the parochial school system
of Scotland on the high vantage ground from which, unless present
appearances are deceptive, it is in danger of being hurled by the
operation of the Education Act now under the consideration of
Parliament. For the younger members of his family, Mr. Baird was enabled
to provide the benefits of a University curriculum. It will not be
necessary to refer to the head of the family further than to say that he
lived to assist, by his judicious counsel and shrewd penetration, in
founding the works at Gartsherrie, from which his family have since
derived such a wide-spread fame.
Half a century ago, the inducements to enter upon an industrial career
were much more limited than they are at the present day. The industries
of the West of Scotland were then few and comparatively uninviting. The
iron trade was in its infancy, and those engaged in it lacked the
resources for the acquisition of wealth that were evolved from the
discovery of blackband mineral deposits by Mushet, the application of
the hot blast by Neilson, and the introduction of other more economical
modes of working. Mr. James Baird did more than any other ironmaster in
Scotland to carry out to its full and perfect development the principle
of hot blast, and he greatly aided the success of Mr. Neilson's
invention by designing appliances which enabled the air to be heated to
a high temperature without destroying the apparatus. Many other
important improvements, which rendered iron-making much more easy and
simple, were soon afterwards carried out under Mr. Baird's auspices,
including the adoption of the modern shape of the blast furnace, which
is very much less in bulk and first cost than the furnaces used in the
early history of the trade. We believe that Mr. Baird was the very first
to introduce the modern shape of the blast furnace. It was a
distinguishing feature in Mr. Baird's character that he excelled in
suggesting and applying different modes of saving labour in every
department, and so thoroughly skilled was he in all the various
processes of manufacture, that every workman with whom he came in
contact regarded him as a master of his handicraft. More than any other
member of his family, Mr. Baird exercised practical authority over all
structural and mechanical arrangements as well as over the mineral
workings leased by or belonging to the firm. So late as the year 1830,
the total number of blast furnaces in Scotland was only seven, and their
capacity of production did not exceed 10,000 tons per annum. Last year,
the total production of the 154 furnaces in Scotland was 1,164,000 tons,
representing an aggregate value of not less than £3,000,000! A single
glance at these figures will convey an adequate idea of the progress
made in the interval; they require neither note nor comment. The Messrs
Baird had little prospect before them other than that afforded by the
pursuit of agriculture, in which their forefathers had engaged. But
William, with characteristic enterprise, resolved that he would not be
tied to the soil. Commencing on a very humble scale, with only a day
level and a gin pit, at Rochsolloch, he was favoured by fortune in his
development of the little colliery. His brothers joined the venture, and
in a short time they were able to extend their operations to Maryston
and Gartsherrie. On the 4th May, 1830, they put in blast the first
furnace in the latter place, thus laying, perhaps with fear and
trembling, the foundations of an establishment which is now one of the
largest of its kind in the world. This was the tide in their affairs
which, taken at its flood, led on to fortune. Although they have
experienced, in common with all others similarly situated, the
occasional vicissitudes of bad times, they were not only able from
henceforth to keep their heads above water, but they continued to go
forth "prospering and to prosper." In 1846 they started the Eglinton
Ironworks, at which there are now eight blast furnaces. Six years later
they acquired the Blair Ironworks, with five blast furnaces. In 1856,
the Lugar and the Muirkirk Ironworks came into the market, and the
Messrs. Baird became the purchasers. The latter works embrace a small
manufactory of malleable iron, and the two together have seven blast
furnaces. In 1864, the firm still further extended their now enormous
business by the acquisition of the Portland Ironworks, with five blast
furnaces, to which one has since been added. At the present time they
own, inclusive of Gartsherrie, at which there are 16 blast furnaces, a
grand total of 42 blast furnaces, 30 of which are now (March, 1872) in
operation. The total produce of iron from the whole of these works will
average 750 tons per day.
Of the Gartsherrie Ironworks--the largest establishment of its kind in
Scotland--it may be interesting to state that it gives employment to
3200 men and boys, and turns out 100,000 tons of pig iron per annum. The
consumpt of coal at Gartsherrie is upwards of 1000 tons per day. Ever
since 1826 Messrs. Baird have been working coal in Gartsherrie estate, so
that a considerable part of the coal consumed has been found adjoining
the works. Pits are still being worked to some extent there, but it is
now found necessary to look elsewhere for coal. We understand the future
supply is to be derived mainly from the district of Bothwell, where
there is a very large virgin field of coal--indeed, evidently the most
important in Scotland--from which the public must ere long begin to draw
their principal supplies. The ironstone for the Gartsherrie works is now
brought from a considerable distance; formerly it was found within from
one to five miles from the furnaces. It is a distinctive peculiarity of
the huge establishment that it is divided by the Monkland Canal, the
blast furnaces standing in two parallel rows on each side of that
highway. Taking the whole of their works together, the Messrs. Baird
employ fully 9000 men and boys, and if we multiply this number by three,
which is a moderate figure, we get 27,000 souls as the number dependent
on the works of the firm. It is quite within the record to declare that
the Messrs. Baird, who turn out annually one-fourth of the entire
production of Scotland, are the largest pig iron makers in the world.
As landed proprietors, the Messrs. Baird have attained a pre-eminent
position in the West of Scotland. Besides his estate of Cambusdoon in
Ayrshire, which he purchased in 1853 for the sum of £22,000, Mr. James
Baird owns the estate of Knoydart, in Inverness-shire, for which in 1857
he paid £90,000. In 1863 he purchased the estate of Muirkirk, at the
price of £135,000, and he owns other properties in Ayrshire of
considerable value. On the death of his brother Robert, who died in
1856, he acquired the estate of Auchmedden, Aberdeenshire, which three
years previously had been purchased for the sum of £60,000. The other
members of the family have found an equally conspicuous place in
"Burke's Landed Gentry." William, who died in March, 1864, was
proprietor of the estates of Rosemount, in Ayrshire, and Elie, in
Fifeshire, the former purchased in 1853 for £47,000, and the latter in
the same year for £155,000. John was proprietor of the estates of
Lochwood, in Lanarkshire, and Ury, in Kincardineshire, the latter being
a gift from his brothers, by arrangement with William, who inherited it
from his father, by whom it was purchased in 1826; while Ury was
bequeathed by his brother Alexander, who purchased it in 1854 for the
sum of £120,000. Douglas, the sixth son, acquired the estate of
Closeburn, in Dumfriesshire, for the sum of £225,000. George, a still
younger member of the family, was proprietor of the estate of Strichen,
in Aberdeenshire, and Stichell, in Roxburghshire--the former purchased
in 1865 for the sum of £145,000, and the latter inherited from his
brother David, who purchased it in 1853 for the sum of £150,000. The
family thus own estates representing in round numbers nearly two
millions of capital, in addition to what they hold as a company in the
shape of mineral fields.
Although it is probably in the annals of commerce that the Messrs. Baird
will find their most lasting monument, they have not been unknown in the
arena of politics. William sat in Parliament for the Falkirk District of
Burghs from 1841 till 1846, when he accepted the Chiltern Hundreds, and
Lord Lincoln reigned in his stead. In 1851, however, the seat again
became vacant, consequent upon Lincoln succeeding to the title and
estates of the Duke of Newcastle. James Baird then took the field in
opposition to Mr. Loch, factor to the Duke of Sutherland, and was
returned by a majority of 55 votes. In the course of the following year
a general election took place, and James again came forward as a
candidate. This time he was opposed by Mr. Anderson, of London. The
result of the election was a majority of 50 in favour of Mr. Baird. At
the general election of 1857, he retired from the representation of
Falkirk, and was succeeded by Mr. Hamilton, of Dalzeill, and afterwards
by Mr. Merry, who has since continued to retain the seat. The politics
of the family have always tended towards Conservatism, and for the
support of the "good old cause" Mr. James Baird has exercised all his
influence, both moral and material.
The educational interests of the West of Scotland owe a deep debt of
gratitude to the Baird family, who have made provision in various ways
for the instruction of upwards of 4000 children. In addition to having
established schools in almost every locality where their workmen are
employed, they have built and supported schools other than those
connected with their works. One of the latter is now in progress of
erection at Townhead, Glasgow, a poor and populous locality, with but a
limited access to the means of education. Another school is just in
course of being erected at the east end of Coatbridge, the expenses of
which will be entirely defrayed by Mr. James Baird, who has all along
taken on active interest in the progress of education. On the 20th
December, 1871, he presided at the meeting held in the City Hall,
Glasgow, with the view of recommending the continuance of religious
instruction in day schools. On that occasion he pleaded eloquently and
ably for a programme which contained three leading propositions--(1)
the maintenance of the religious instruction that had hitherto been the
use and wont of the country; (2) the management of the parochial and
other schools of Scotland by the people themselves, instead of by a
Board in London, which could know but little respecting the educational
wants of the country; and (3) that a proper training in secular and
religious knowledge be provided for the teachers, along with a due
remuneration for their labours. Mr. Baird then proceeded to show that
there was a danger of allowing the education of the country to become
secularised, and that the word religion, which only appeared twice in
the Education Bill, was inserted in the sense of forbidding it to be
taught at all. With reference to the support of education, Mr. Baird
expressed a clearly defined opinion, of which we quote the _ipsissima
verba_. "I have," he said, "a strong and conscientious objection that
any of my money, whether exacted from me by rates and taxes, should be
expended in teaching secular knowledge unless it is permeated by
religion, and I believe I shall be joined by an overwhelming majority of
the people of Scotland in that objection." ... "Religious and Scriptural
education is what we are contending for, and religious education we must
have, even should the State withdraw its support, which is a thing not
likely to be done." These are the words of one who has evidently "read,
marked, learned, and inwardly digested" the whole subject of education,
and is prepared, at whatever sacrifice or cost, to stand up for a system
of instruction that shall embrace preparation not only for the duties
and exigencies of this life but also for that which is to come. And the
views of such a man have all the more weight that they accompany and
flow from a sincere desire and a tangible readiness to afford practical
support to the cause of education.
But if education owes much to the generosity and practical sympathy of
the Messrs. Baird, the Church has still more reason to register their
names in its roll of attached friends. With reference to Mr. James
Baird, it may be fitly said that he is "a pillar in Israel." He is
conservative to the extent of maintaining unimpaired all the
institutions of the Church; but patronage, and other plague-spots in her
bright and noble constitution, he would utterly abolish. Progress has
long been his watchword, but it is in the direction of building up and
not of pulling down. He is not an iconoclast for the mere sake of
change. But he would remove out of the pathway of the Church all that
would hinder from the efficient discharge of her mission. Above all, he
is averse to a policy of _laissez faire_. Believing that the Church has
failed to meet the increasing wants of the people, he is an eager
advocate and a liberal and intelligent supporter of missionary schemes.
At an ordination dinner held in Glasgow in 1868, Mr. Baird delivered an
address, in the course of which he pointed out that the missions of the
Church were in a languid state, and dragged along a dreary and miserable
existence. Although there were from 12,000 to 15,000 young men and women
arriving in Glasgow every year at an age when they should become members
of some church, the Establishment was getting barely sufficient from
that multitude to maintain its old numbers. He was afraid, he added,
that a great many had not the chance of joining any church, as none of
the churches were increasing in proportion to the population of the
city; and that, therefore, they would go on to swell the ranks of
heathenism and materialism. The results of the investigations recently
carried out in this city, amply vindicate Mr. Baird's almost prophetic
remarks. Mr. Johnston's pamphlets on the religious wants of Glasgow;
pamphlets issued on the same subject by Mr. Alexander Whitelaw, Mr.
Baird's hearty coadjutor in every good word and work; and the inquiries
made under the auspices of the association established for the purpose
of inquiring into the religious destitution of Glasgow, all tend to
prove that there are from 100,000 to 160,000 souls living without the
means of grace, and in a state of practical heathenism, in a city that
can boast of a Knox, a Chalmers, and other apostles of Christianity.
Thus, although Mr. Baird's figures appeared startling, and although his
forebodings may have seemed unnecessary, they have turned out to be
rather under than beyond the mark. But the zeal of Mr. Baird did not
stop at merely pointing out the evil. He exerted himself most
assiduously to provide a remedy. We believe he was one of the promoters
of a society formed for the purpose of extending the church
accommodation of Glasgow, and especially for the building of new
churches in neglected and necessitous localities. That society has
already done the Church some service. It aims at removing from the
Establishment the stigma that she has failed to keep pace with the
requirements of the population; and, despite the difficult and arduous
character of the work which it has assigned itself, the association is
likely to succeed in making "rough places plain and crooked paths
straight."
We may add that Mr. Baird has been twice married. His first marriage was
in 1852, to Charlotte Lockhart of Cambusnethan, who died at Nice, in
Italy, in 1857. In 1859 he espoused Isabella Agnew Hay, daughter of the
late Admiral Hay. Although he is still the principal of the firm, Mr.
Baird takes no very active part in the conduct of the business, the
management devolving upon the other partners.
SIR WILLIAM THOMSON.
The world-wide reputation, as a mathematician and physicist, which Sir
William Thomson has acquired, is a sufficient plea for giving him the
foremost place in our sketches of University professors. Born in Belfast
in June, 1824, Sir William has entered upon the forty-eighth year of his
age. His father, Dr. James Thomson, was the author of several
mathematical text-books, and occupied for some time the position of
lecturer on mathematics at the Royal Academical Institute in Belfast,
from whence he was transferred to the mathematical professorship of
Glasgow University. The subject of our present sketch commenced his
University life at the early age of eleven years. Both in the chemistry
classes of Dr. Thomas Thomson, and in the astronomical lectures of Dr.
Nichol, he showed himself an exceedingly apt student, and gained
numerous prizes. In 1845, he graduated as second wrangler and first
Smith's prizeman at Cambridge University. On Sir William's career as a
Cambridge student we find the following interesting paragraph in an
article recently supplied to one of the leading magazines:--"When quite
a boy at Cambridge, still in his teens, he was a contributor to
mathematical journals both in France and England. It might have been
supposed that he was a lonely student, dwelling in a tower, like Erasmus
or Roger Bacon, quite cut off from the unsympathetic mob of his brother
collegians. On the contrary, Thomson was one of the best oarsmen of his
day, and an immense favourite with his brother under-graduates. This
taste for the water has always accompanied him. He had made many
valuable excursions in his beautiful yacht _Lalla Rookh_; and his
knowledge of the theory and practice of sailing is said to be
extraordinary. The occasion of his taking his degree proved an ovation
still recollected, and recorded in the annals of Cambridge. There was
not the least doubt in the University but that the youthful Peterhouse
man was the mathematical genius of the day. 'Eclipse was first and the
rest nowhere.' But the rumour arose that there was a 'dark man' at St.
John's, who possessed a wonderful power of throwing off paper-work at
examinations with the regularity of a machine. One of the examiners
subsequently described himself as petrified at the papers thrown off, as
if by the velocity of a steam-engine, on the part of the Johnian. At the
Cambridge Senate House examinations speed is everything; and when two
men are pretty evenly balanced the muscular power of the wrist settles
the day. Thomson was Second Wrangler, and a little more time for writing
would have made him Senior Wrangler. For the Smith's Prize he of course
distanced the Senior Wrangler and all other competitors. The worthy
Johnian, who supplanted him for the blue ribbon of the University, was,
irrationally enough, very unpopular, and has subsequently been lost
sight of in scientific history. Before Sir William Thomson there was a
great career. At twenty-one he was a fellow of his college. At
twenty-two he was a Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of
Glasgow. When little more than out of his teens, Sir William Thomson
became editor of the _Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal_,
through which a great impetus was given to the study of pure and applied
mechanics; and before the era of the Atlantic Cable he contributed many
papers on telegraphy to the Royal Society, in connection with which he
made the acquaintance and enjoyed the esteem of such men as Faraday and
Brewster. The Natural Philosophy Chair in Glasgow University he has
raised to a high rank--perhaps the highest of its kind in the world, and
students come from far and near to sit at the feet of this Gamaliel
among the physicists of his day and generation."
The Bakerian lecture, entitled "The Electro-Dynamic Properties of
Metal," was delivered by Sir William Thomson in 1855, and by that and
kindred contributions to scientific literature he was rapidly laying
the foundation of his great reputation. In 1854 he published a series of
investigations, by which he shows that the capacity of the conducting
wire for the electric charge depends on the ratio of its diameter to
that of the gutta percha covering; and in the face of much opposition he
established what is now known as the "law of squares," which asserts
that the rate of transmission is inversely as the square of the length
of the cable. These results were of much utility in their bearing on the
working of submarine cables, and it is not too much to affirm that it
was to Sir William Thomson's counsel that the success of the Atlantic
Cable is in great part due. His mirror galvanometer was the first
instrument that could be applied with anything like satisfactory results
to submarine telegraphy. More recently, however, he has invented and
patented another instrument, called the "syphon recorder," which was
exhibited publicly for the first time at the opening of the British
India Submarine Telegraph. The special feature of the "syphon recorder"
is a minute capillary syphon, which, while it continually discharges ink
against a moving paper, is by means of a delicate electro-magnetic
arrangement caused to move from side to side _according to the electric
pulses passed through the cable_, and from the record thus obtained of
these motions the message is deciphered. From trials lately made on the
Falmouth, Gibraltar, and Malta lines, it has been ascertained that 25
words per minute can be registered through a cable 800 miles long. It is
also a recommendation to the "syphon recorder" that it can be worked by
very low battery power, and therefore tends to the preservation of the
cable. Among Sir William's other inventions we may specially mention an
electrometer, which has now assumed a very complete form. His
divided-ring electrometer admitted of accurate measurements, in skilled
hands, of fractions of a Daniell's cell; his portable electrometer
admits of readings from 10 or 20 cells upwards; but his new reflecting
electrometer gives as much as 100 divisions on the scale for one single
cell of the battery. In Mr. Varley's patent of 1860, he describes a
method which he employed to make the one plate charge itself, and on
this principle he constructed a large electrical machine, which he
exhibited at a soiree of the Royal Society of 1869-70. This machine has
been adopted by Sir William Thomson for maintaining the charge in his
electrometer. The new electrometer is really a combination of three
inventions--of Sir William Thomson's portable electrometer to indicate
whether or no the instrument is sufficiently charged; of the replenisher
by Mr. Varley for charging or discharging; and of the quadrant
electrometer for reading off the minute tensions measured. The
instrument is in its present form so practically useful that it has been
largely used in connection with telegraphic cables, and Mr. Varley has
calculated tables to enable any electrician at a glance to infer from
two readings by this electrometer the insulating power of any
telegraphic cable.
Sir William Thomson is no specialist. Many people are accustomed to
associate his name with the Atlantic Cable, and with that alone. This,
however, is a great mistake, for he has made many important additions to
the science of magnetism, respecting which he published a number of
valuable papers between the years 1847 and 1851. He has also displayed
extraordinary acumen and intelligence in the investigation of the nature
of heat. Neither should it be forgotten that Sir William has speculated
a great deal on the ultimate constitution of matter--an inquiry which
has occupied the attention of all great physicists in modern times. Last
year he published in _Nature_ an article which, running from four
different lines of argument, seeks to establish proof of the absolute
magnitude of the atoms of matter. Of this argument Tyndall
says:--"William Thomson tries to place the ultimate particles of matter
between his compass points, and to apply to them a scale of
millimetres."
In the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, Sir William has published an article
describing the instruments--chiefly invented by himself--which were used
in laying the Atlantic Cable. In the same contribution he describes the
expeditions undertaken in 1857 and 1858 for the purpose of laying the
Atlantic Cable, and the difficulties that had to be encountered in that
great enterprise. This he was eminently qualified to do from his
experience as acting electrician on board the _Agamemnon_ during the
progress of the work which resulted in the completion, in August, 1858,
of the Atlantic Cable, and the astonishment of the world at finding the
two opposite shores of the great ocean placed in instantaneous
communication with each other. For some time after the cable was laid he
remained at Valentia, endeavouring to bring his galvanometer to still
greater perfection. From the subsequent failure of the Atlantic Cable,
and until it was finally established as a successful "institution," Sir
William was busily employed in seeking to make more perfect and easy the
difficult science of submarine telegraphy; and in the expeditions of
1865 and 1866, which he accompanied, his counsel and assistance proved
of inestimable value.
From the Royal Society of Edinburgh Sir William received the Keith Prize
for the years 1862 and 1863. On the occasion of the award, Sir David
Brewster, the Vice-President of the Society, thus referred to the many
valuable papers he had communicated to the Society during the seventeen
years of his connection with it:--"These papers, and others elsewhere
published, relate principally to the theories of Electricity, Magnetism,
and Heat, and evince a genius for the mathematical treatment of physical
questions which has not been surpassed, if equalled, by that of any
living philosopher. In studying the mathematical theory of Electricity,
he has greatly extended the general theorems demonstrated by our
distinguished countryman, Mr. Green; and was led to the principle of
'electrical images,' by which he was enabled to solve many problems
respecting the distribution of electricity on conductors, which had been
regarded as insoluble by the most eminent mathematicians in Europe. In
his researches on Thermo-dynamics, Professor Thomson has been equally
successful. In his papers 'On the Dynamical Theory of Heat,' he has
applied the fundamental propositions of the theory to bodies of all
kinds, and he has adduced many curious and important results regarding
the specific heats of bodies, which have been completely verified by the
accurate experiments of M. Joule. No less important are Professor
Thomson's researches on Solar Heat, contained in his remarkable papers
'On the Mechanical Energy of the Solar System;' his researches on the
Conservation of Energy, as applied to organic as well as inorganic
processes; and his fine theory of the dissipation of Energy, as given in
his paper 'On a Universal Tendency in Nature to the Dissipation of
Mechanical Energy.' To these we may add his complete theory of
Diamagnetic Action, his investigations relative to the Secular Cooling
of our Globe, and the influence of internal heat upon the temperature of
its surface." Sir David Brewster, after referring to other works, added
that "the important conclusions which he obtained from 'The Theory of
Induction in Submarine Telegraphy,' have found a valuable practical
application in the patent instrument for reading and receiving messages,
which he so successfully employed in the submarine cable across the
Atlantic; and when that great work is completed, his name will be
associated with the noblest gift that science ever offered to
civilisation. By his delicate electrometer, his electric spark
recorder, and his marine and land relation galvanometer, he has provided
the world of thought with the finest instruments of observation and
research, and the world of action with the means of carrying the
messages of commerce and civilisation which have yet to cross the
uncabled oceans that separate the families of the earth."
In 1866, after the Atlantic Telegraph Cable had been successfully laid,
Sir William Thomson received the honour of knighthood from the Crown. On
the same occasion he was presented with the freedom of his adopted
city--Glasgow. The degree of LL.D. was conferred on him successively by
Trinity College, Dublin, by Cambridge and by Edinburgh Universities, and
that of D.C.L. by Oxford. He is a Fellow of the London Royal Society, as
well as that of Edinburgh; and he is an honorary and corresponding
member of several learned societies abroad.
On the loss of H.M.S. _Captain_, a Commission was appointed to
investigate the merits of designs for ships of war. Of that Commission
Sir William Thomson is a valuable and valued member, from his intimate
acquaintance with dynamical science and the theory of stability. Sir
William also conducts the operations of two committees appointed by the
British Association to investigate the subject of Tides and Underground
Temperature, the results of which are expected to settle many points of
physical theory. The circumstances of Sir William Thomson's election to
the presidential chair of the British Association for the Advancement of
Science, and the remarkably able address which he delivered in opening
the late Edinburgh meeting, are of such recent occurrence that they need
not be recapitulated.
Sir William Thomson married, in 1852, a daughter of the late Walter
Crum, Esq., F.R.S., who has predeceased him. He is a Liberal in
politics, and no one has taken a more active part than he in forwarding
the interests of the Liberal candidates for the representation of the
Universities.
PRINCIPAL BARCLAY.
Cities that bear the dual character of seats of learning and marts of
commerce are comparatively rare. Who would ever dream of finding a
foundry on the Isis, or a factory on the Cam? These streams are sacred
to learning. They are not polluted with the vapours that are evolved
from industrial life. No sounds of the ponderous hammer, or screeching
"buzzer," are to be heard within the range of their pellucid course.
They are consecrated to more lofty, if not to more useful purposes. But
with the Clyde the case is different. It is almost a puzzle to say
whether Glasgow excels more as the seat of a famous University or as the
centre of a hundred busy, important, and prosperous industries.
Certainly, the decadence of the one has not followed the development of
the other. Learning and commerce flourish hand in hand, without the
slightest trace of incompatibility. No less an authority than Sir Robert
Peel declared, on the occasion of his installation as Lord Rector of the
University in 1837, "I do not consider it an exaggerated compliment when
I say that I doubt whether, of all cities existing on the face of the
earth, there be any one so remarkable for the combination of commercial
and active industry, with services rendered to science and literature,
as Glasgow." From the watch towers of Gilmorehill a hundred chimneys,
some of them rivalling the Pyramids of Gizeh in height, may be seen; the
din of a hundred hammers, employed in the service of the world's
merchant marine, may be distinctly heard; innumerable masts, denoting
our traffic with all parts of the globe, may be counted. And yet in
these same halls the budding genius of Scotland's sons is being
developed--the qualities that are henceforth to distinguish our
statesmen, and orators, and poets, and merchant princes, are being
matured. The _alumni_ of Glasgow University have not all blushed unseen,
albeit the fame of their _Alma Mater_ has sometimes been over-shadowed
by that of Edinburgh. To go no further back than the living members of
the _Senatus Academicus_, it will be admitted that Caird in Divinity,
Lushington in Greek, Sir William Thomson in Natural Philosophy, Allen
Thomson in Anatomy, Rankine in Mechanics, Grant in Astronomy, and
Gairdner in Medicine, are names to conjure with. For the Principal of a
seat of learning, that combines with an extraordinary amount of present
vitality and prestige the traditions of a glorious past, stretching
backwards until it is almost lost sight of amid the mists of the Middle
Ages, it is surely essential that he should be a man of piety, of
excellent governing and administrative powers, and, above all, of
extensive erudition. All these conditions have distinguished more or
less the predecessors of Dr. Barclay, the present Principal, and in
himself they are very happily combined, although he is "not so young as
he used to be," and his energy and usefulness have necessarily been
somewhat impaired by the lapse of years.
Principal Barclay is the son of the Rev. James Barclay, minister of
Unst, Shetland, and was born in the year 1792. After having been
educated at King's College, Aberdeen, which he entered in the year 1808,
and where he distinguished himself by carrying off the highest bursary,
young Barclay proceeded to London, pending his appointment to a
ministerial charge in the Church of Scotland. A spirit of adventure and
enterprise induced him to take this step. He could not brook the idea of
spending any of his time in a state of comparative idleness. Through the
influence of some friends, he succeeded shortly after his arrival in the
metropolis in getting an appointment as Parliamentary reporter to the
_Times_, and he continued in the gallery of the House of Commons in that
capacity during the four years commencing with 1818. It is not too much
to say that these four years embraced one of the most eventful and
exciting periods of England's history. The Reform agitation was being
carried on with a bitterness that almost eclipsed all subsequent
attempts to establish the five points of the Charter as the law of the
land. In these years, too, the memorable trial of Queen Caroline took
place, and it is one of Principal Barclay's most interesting
reminiscences that during his connection with the _Times_ he had
occasion to report not only a considerable amount of the evidence taken
in the House of Lords during the Queen's trial, but also the memorable
speech of Lord Brougham in defence of the unfortunate lady--a speech
which has only been eclipsed in point of length by the recent address of
the Attorney-General in the Tichborne trial, and by Burke's speech in
connection with the trial of Warren Hastings. Among his _collaborateurs_
on the _Times_, Principal Barclay can recall the names of Collier, so
well known for his knowledge and criticism of Shakespeare's works;
Barnes, who subsequently distinguished himself as the sub-editor and
leader-writer of the leading journal; and Tyas, who afterwards
introduced that special feature for which the _Times_ has long been
noted--the abridgement of the Parliamentary debates. The routine of a
reporter's duties at that time was pretty much the same as it is at the
present day, the main difference being that the work was, if anything,
more difficult and arduous at a period when shorthand was in its
infancy, and when the staff employed on the daily journals was much less
numerous than it is in our own day. Another feature that tended to make
more difficult the Parliamentary reporters' duties at that period, was
the long "takes" which they had to supply--a "take" being the share of
the work which each member of the reporting staff has individually
alloted to his charge. At that time every reporter who entered the
gallery was compelled to write out the proceedings of a whole hour, and
he had to do this with so much celerity and amplitude that the report
had to be as complete as the Parliamentary reports of the _Times_ have
ever been. It has since been found, however, that the labour of an hour
is far too much for one man, if he is to do himself or the report
anything like justice; and hence the "take" of reporters became very
much shortened, until they now seldom exceed a quarter of an hour or
twenty minutes. Another negative phase of Dr. Barclay's journalistic
career which may be noticed, is the fact that he never fell foul of the
Sergeant-at-Arms, into whose custody many an unlucky reporter, who was
accused of having misstated the speeches of legislators, was given.
Despite the fact that Collier was at that time the only shorthand writer
on the staff of the _Times_, it was his misfortune to undergo this
ordeal. He was summoned to the bar of the House, and, having fully
vindicated his report, he was immediately discharged from custody. The
fee of the Sergeant-at-Arms (eighty guineas) was paid by Mr. Walter. On
another occasion a complaint was made in the House of a report by a Mr.
Ross, one of the _Times'_ staff. The occasion was a speech delivered by
Canning, and the sentence which he was said to have misreported was to
the effect that the subject had never been under the consideration of
the Cabinet above five minutes. Ross, however, had the satisfaction of
receiving a letter from Canning himself, in which the great statesman
vindicated the accuracy of the report. Mr. Barclay was never a shorthand
writer. He was accustomed to use abbreviated longhand, and he became so
expert in the use of this system, that he could report without
difficulty any average speaker. After leaving the _Times_, which he did
at the close of the year 1821, Mr. Barclay received a call to
Dunrossness, in Shetland, and he continued to minister in that parish
until the year 1827, when he was translated to Lerwick, a parish in the
same remote region. Subsequently, in 1843, he was removed to
Petercoulter, in Aberdeenshire; and his fourth and last charge was
Currie, in Mid Lothian, to which he was translated in 1844. It was while
he was in the latter charge that the Principalship of the Glasgow
University became vacant, owing to the death of the late Principal
Macfarlan, and the office was conferred by the Government, with whom the
patronage lay, upon Dr. Barclay. The appointment was a good deal
discussed at the time, and it was said in some circles that it was
scarcely judicious, the fact being that Mr. Barclay's claims and
qualifications for such a high position were not fully known. But he had
really earned the honour by his ability and scholarship. It is
questionable whether any man in Scotland has a more extensive
acquaintance with languages, both modern and ancient. He is particularly
conversant with Icelandic literature, which very few people have
studied, but which is specially worthy of study, both for its historical
interest and its poetry. Indeed, from the Mediterranean to Iceland there
is, perhaps, no language spoken that Principal Barclay does not
understand. Besides this, however, he has devoted much attention to
Biblical criticism, and he was long distinguished as one of the ablest
and staunchest of the few advocates of reform and liberalism that during
his ministerial career adorned the Church Courts. Hence, although they
might be comparatively unknown, Dr. Barclay was not without due
qualifications for the office. One of the leading journals, in referring
to Principal Barclay's appointment, which was made in December, 1857,
declared "that to stand up as he did against a mass of brethren in
matters on which the _esprit de corps_ is morbidly strong, requires not
only the exercise of some of the higher moral and intellectual powers,
but the sacrifice of some of the weaknesses especially incident to the
clerical character, and those who in the Established Church Courts
perform such a duty in the interests of justice, of progress, and of the
public, have much need of the sympathy and encouragement that can be
given from without. Hitherto, however, there has been a sort of
impression that the support of liberal measures formed rather an
obstacle than a recommendation to the good offices of even liberal
dispensers of patronage, and there is matter for congratulation in so
much being done towards the destruction of this impression by the fact
of Dr. Barclay, being a Liberal in Church and State not having been
allowed to act as a counterbalance to his other qualifications for the
high office to which he is about to be raised." Principal Barclay enjoys
in his present capacity an _otium cum dignitate_ to which, after the
labours of a long life, he is well entitled. Although verging on his
eightieth year, he is still hale, hearty, and vigorous, and able to
converse intelligently on the most abstruse and recondite subjects.
Principal Barclay was married in 1820 to Mary, the daughter of the late
Captain Adamson of Kirkhill. They have had a large family, but only two
daughters and one son survive. Both the former are married, and the
latter is following the medical profession in China.
PROFESSOR RANKINE.
The Clyde is indissolubly connected with the history and progress of
naval architecture. It was on the Clyde that steam navigation was first
successfully applied. The Clyde may almost be said to be the cradle of
iron shipbuilding; and it is to Clyde engineers and shipbuilders that
the compound marine engine, and other improvements that have rendered
ocean navigation more easy, safe, and practicable, are mainly due. But
while the earlier history of naval architecture is bound up with that of
the Clyde, its ultimate development and its present high state of
perfection were brought about by the sustained and unflagging energy,
enterprise, and ability of men like Professor Rankine, Robert Napier,
and John Elder, who exerted themselves to maintain the pre-eminence
which, thanks to their discoveries and exertions, the Clyde has never
lost. The two latter gentlemen carried out in practice what the former
demonstrated in theory. Never having been directly engaged in commercial
pursuits, Professor Rankine could not earn the credit of building those
leviathans that have directly contributed to our commercial prosperity;
but in another, and not less essential way, he has assisted to build up
and consolidate our industrial supremacy, and his numerous writings and
discoveries in the science of mechanics will ever cause him to be
regarded as a pioneer, not less than Henry Bell or Robert Napier, of a
trade that has proved a source of untold wealth to the West of Scotland.
Professor William John Macquorn Rankine was born in Edinburgh. His
father was an officer in the Rifle Brigade, and afterwards a railway
manager and director. After receiving his education at Edinburgh
University, he studied engineering under his father, and afterwards
under Sir John M'Neill, who subsequently became Professor of Practical
Engineering in Trinity College, Dublin, and at the opening of the
railway from Dublin to Drogheda, which he constructed in 1844, received
the honour of knighthood from Earl de Grey, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.
When we remember that Sir John was no less able as a teacher than as an
author, and that his knowledge of engineering was not bounded by mere
theory alone, we get a clue to the eminently practical turn of mind
which characterised his illustrious pupil. In 1844 Mr. Rankine commenced
business as a civil engineer in Edinburgh. His residence in Edinburgh
was unrelieved by any event worthy of being recorded in his biography,
if we except a project, which he brought before the authorities and
zealously promoted, for obtaining a more efficient supply of water.
After a two or three years' residence in Edinburgh, Mr. Rankine
determined to remove to Glasgow, where a more congenial sphere appeared
ready to receive him. Entering into partnership with Mr. John Thomson,
he took an active part in all great schemes of a scientific or
mechanical nature; and it was while here engaged in private practice
that he again called attention to the admirable source of water supply
afforded by Loch Katrine, thus reviving a project which had been
originated in 1845 by Messrs. Gordon and Hill. It was reserved for others
to carry to a successful issue the scheme thus earnestly advocated by
Rankine; but to him belongs the merit none the less of having urged it
upon the authorities of that day. After the lapse of several years,
during which he no doubt improved his time and opportunities by laying
the foundation of that series of text books which he produced with
remarkable fecundity in a marvellously short space of time, Mr. Rankine
was appointed in 1855 to the Chair of Civil Engineering and Mechanics in
Glasgow University. This Chair, we may explain, was instituted by Queen
Victoria in 1840, and is in the gift of the Crown. Its first occupant
was Louis D. B. Gordon, C.E., who subsequently devoted his whole time
and attention to the practical business of civil engineering and to
telegraphy, in connection with which subjects he has made a great
reputation. The curriculum of study imparted by Professor Rankine
includes the stability of structures; the strength of materials; the
principle of the actions of machines; prime movers, whether driven by
animal strength, wind, or the mechanical action of heat; the principles
of hydraulics; the mathematical principles of surveying and levelling;
the engineering of earthwork, masonry, carpentry, structures in iron,
roads, railways, bridges, and viaducts, tunnels, canals, works of
drainage and water supply, river works, harbour works, and sea coast
works. The engineering school of the University of Glasgow was approved
by the Secretary of State for India in Council as one in which
attendance for two years would qualify a student who had fulfilled the
other required conditions to compete for admission to the engineering
establishments of India. This recognition, however, came to an end when
the Cooper's Hill College was established. It is worth while noticing
that although Professor Rankine started on his academic career with only
some half-a-dozen pupils, his class now numbers between 40 and 50. This
is to be ascribed in a great measure to the establishment by the
authorities of the University in 1862 of a systematic course of study
and examination in engineering science, embracing the various branches
of mathematical and physical science which have a bearing on
engineering. While attending to his University duties he still continued
to carry on a private practice, and was frequently called in to consult
upon engineering schemes of great magnitude, in this and other
countries, and upon matters relating to shipbuilding and marine
engineering.
Mr. Rankine's literary career commenced while he was in Edinburgh with
the publication of a series of papers on the mechanical action of heat.
His theory of the development of heat as one of the forces of
thermo-dynamics was propounded simultaneously with that of Professor
Clausius of Berlin, in 1849, and supplied the only link that was wanted
to make the theory of the steam engine a perfect science. For his
researches on this subject he received the Keith Medal of the Royal
Society of Edinburgh in 1852. Of miscellaneous literature connected with
the science of mechanics he has been a most voluminous writer. He has
contributed a number of valuable papers to the Institution of Naval
Architects, of which for many years he has been a prominent member. In
1864 he read before that Society papers on "The Computation of the
Probable Engine Power and Speed of Proposed Ships," "On Isochronous
Rolling Ships," and on "The Uneasy Rolling of Ships." In the following
year he read a paper on "A Proposed Method of Bevelling Iron Frames in
Ships;" and, in 1866, he read two papers--one of them demonstrating the
means of finding the most economical rates of expansion in steam
engines, and the other describing a balanced rudder for screw steamers.
But he did not confine his contributions to one Institution, or even to
one medium of publication, for we find that he read a number of papers
before the Philosophical Society, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and
the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland, while he
wrote occasionally at the same time for the _Philosophical Magazine_,
the _Journal of the Royal United Service Institution_, and other leading
publications. His first appearance in the pages of the _Philosophical
Magazine_ was made in 1842, when he wrote a paper on an experimental
inquiry into the advantages attending the use of cylindrical wheels on,
with an explanation of the theory of adopting curves for these wheels,
and its application to practice, and an account of experiments showing
the easy draught and safety of carriages with cylindrical wheels. From
this time, until he made his _début_ at the Royal Society of Edinburgh
in 1853, he had been working most assiduously at his theory of the
development of heat, and one of his first papers to the Royal Society
was entitled "A Review of the Fundamental Principles of the Mechanical
Theory of Heat, with Remarks on the Thermic Phenomena of Currents of
Elastic Fluids, as Illustrating those Principles." In 1858 he published
"A Manual of Applied Mechanics and other Prime Movers," in 1859 he
produced another masterly work on "Civil Engineering," and in 1866
"Useful Rules and Tables Relating to Mensuration" came from his prolific
pen. In 1865 he published, in conjunction with his friends Mr. James R.
Napier, Mr. Isaac Watts, C.B., and Mr. F. K. Barnes, of the
Constructors' Department of the Royal Navy, a treatise on "Shipbuilding,
Theoretical and Practical," which has since taken a foremost place among
the mechanical works of the day. Besides these, he wrote, in 1857, the
article on "Applied Mechanics" for the eighth edition of the
_Encyclopædia Britannica_, and in 1870 he published "A Manual of
Machinery and Mill work." From the time that Mr. Rankine's maiden
efforts at the literature of mechanical science appeared in the _London
Philosophical Magazine_, he has attracted the attention and commanded
the esteem of scientific men throughout the world. One of the most
remarkable features in his career is the rapid succession with which he
produced the text books of mathematical formulæ which bear his name. Not
a little of the contents of his works can claim the merit of
originality, and where he has drawn upon previously ascertained facts,
he has carried out his plan in such an able and judicious manner as to
secure for his publications the confidence of the whole profession.
Although each of his works is, in its way, equally valuable, the "Manual
of Applied Mechanics," which forms the real basis of the others, maybe
regarded as the standard, and so universal has its use become that the
young engineer who has not mastered its contents is considered to have
learned only half of his profession.
With his ample and varied experience in the qualities and requirements
of sea-going vessels, Mr. Rankine was very appropriately selected a few
months ago as one of the members of the Committee on Designs for Ships
of War. This, we may add, is not the only instance in which he has been
entrusted by Government with a responsible and honourable commission.
For a number of years Mr. Rankine has held the honorary post of
Consulting Engineer to the Highland and Agricultural Society of
Scotland. In 1859 he raised the Glasgow University Company of Rifle
Volunteers, and served with that corps as Captain and Major for nearly
five years. He is a Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and
Edinburgh; an LL.D. of Dublin University; and a member of several
learned societies, including the British Association for the Advancement
of Science, over the Mechanical Section of which he has more than once
been called to preside.
Special reference should be made to Professor Rankine's connection with
the Institution of Engineers in Scotland, with which the Association of
Shipbuilders was ultimately incorporated. Of that Society Mr. Rankin was
an earnest promoter, and he was suitably elected to be its first
president. In recognition of the services which he rendered to the cause
of mechanical science generally, and to this Institution in particular,
he was presented with his bust at a conversazione held in the
Corporation Galleries on 19th August, 1870, when the North of England
Institution of Mining and Mechanical Engineers held a series of joint
meetings with the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland.
The presentation was made by Mr. David Rowan, president, who read on the
occasion an address prepared by the Council of the Association, in which
the following passages occurred:--"The valuable assistance which you
have constantly given for the advancement of the Institution since its
foundation in the year 1757, the admirable manner in which, during three
sessions, you presided over its deliberations, the distinction which
your papers, and the part you have taken in the discussions, imparted to
the proceedings, have placed the Institution under a debt of gratitude
to you that we all feel cannot be adequately repaid by anything that it
is in our power to do. These, however, are not the only reasons for the
great esteem with which we all regard you. These may be said to be on
our part selfish reasons; but there are others vastly more important why
you merit--why you irresistibly attract--not only from us that great
regard which we all feel to be an honour to ourselves to bestow, but
from all who possess an acquaintance with your works, and who possess a
knowledge of the value of exact science. Your work on 'Applied
Mechanics' is a great illustration of your power to grasp, to connect,
and to apply the definite principles of exact science with the less
definite known elements of practical problems. Abstract principles are
valueless, except in application to the wants of man, and this work
occupies that field with great eminence. Your work on the 'Steam Engine
and other Prime Movers' deals with the principles involved in that
important subject in a masterly manner, that renders comparison with any
other similar work impossible. In this work the first elements of the
science upon which these machines depend are traced in their operation
through their material embodiment, and the laws which govern the
principle of pure science connected definitely with the varied
construction of the machines. Your works on Civil Engineering,
Machinery, and Millwork, &c., each exhibit the powerful intellect that
is invariably found in all your productions, and that place them on an
eminence peculiarly your own. All your books possess a value which we,
who are practical men engaged in performing many of the varied works
which fall to engineers, feel to be of the very highest importance. Each
of these works is a text book on the subject to which it relates, and an
authority established in the estimation of those engaged in these
pursuits. The labour and mental power required for the production of
these works place the author on an eminence rarely attainable. But great
as is the distinction which the authorship of these works proclaim,
there is yet another and grander achievement for which science is
indebted to you. The new science of modern times which embraces the
relation of all physical energy is largely your own. It is to you that
we chiefly owe the development of that branch of the science called
Thermo-dynamics, which has revolutionised the theory of heat and the
principles of all the machines dependent on that theory. The steam
engine, the most important instrument, I believe, in existence, is now
placed on two principles. Its operation before the development of this
science was to a considerable extent obscure, and although there are
some features that still require consideration, you have done more than
was ever done before to instruct us in its true principle and operation.
Your development of thermo-dynamics, coupled with the great discovery of
Joule of the numerical relation of heat and dynamic effect, or the
quantity of the one that is equal to a quantity of the other, places
within our reach the numerical result to be obtained from assumed
elements of heat--prime movers. Your name, and that of Clausers, and
Joule, and our distinguished friend Thomson, will ever be associated
with this science, which has done much towards explaining important laws
of nature."
We may add that Mr. Rankine is a painstaking and conscientious teacher,
and takes great care to impart to his students a correct and
intelligible knowledge of their studies. He is no sciolist himself, and
he does not believe in merely superficial attainments in his pupils. As
to his social qualities, it is well known to his more intimate friends
that Professor Rankine is a _bon vivant_ of the first water. He is in
his element at the "Red Lion" dinners of the British Association, where
he has frequently displayed vocal powers of a high order of merit; and
it is worth while mentioning that he is the composer of the words and
music alike of some of his best songs. One of his most familiar
productions as a song writer appeared originally in _Blackwood's
Magazine_, and is entitled "The Engine Driver's Address to his Engine."
PROFESSOR ALLEN THOMSON.
Though Glasgow has long been somewhat over-shadowed, in matters medical,
by the superior fame of Edinburgh, it is nevertheless worthy of remark
that at no period have her medical schools, whether intra-academical or
extra-academical, been without teachers of high excellence. The
Hamiltons, the brothers Burns, Jeffrey, Millar, Thomson, M'Kenzie,
Lawrie, M'Grigor, Graham, Hunter, and Pagan were men all who would have
shone with a bright lustre in any sphere, and when we instance Harry
Rainy, Andrew Buchanan, and Allen Thomson as a few who are still with
us, we say enough to show that the mantles of those that have passed the
fatal bourne have fallen on no unworthy successors. The cynosure,
however, just now, in our faculty of medicine, would seem, by general
consent, to be Dr. Allen Thomson. And there is reason for this. His able,
trustworthy researches in microscopic science have gained for him a
European reputation--as a teacher of anatomy he is rivalled by few, if
any, in the kingdom--as a member of the Academical Senate he is a most
energetic promoter of the welfare of our time-honoured University--while
as a citizen he is ever the warm and judicious supporter of all measures
calculated to forward the social prosperity of our great and
still-increasing civic community. Dr. Thomson was born in Edinburgh in
1809. His father was Dr. John Thomson, one of the most eminent
metropolitan practitioners of his day; his mother was Margaret, a
daughter of the late Professor John Millar, of this city, one of the
most attractive expounders of jurisprudence of the period, and
well-known as the author of various treatises of acknowledged excellence
on "Ranks," "Government," and other departments of constitutional law.
Dr. John Thomson was in many respects a very remarkable man. When upwards
of twenty years of age, he might have been seen in his father's factory
in Paisley, working at the loom as a silk-weaver; when he died, which
was in his eighty-second year, he was Professor of General Pathology in
the University of Edinburgh. In proof of the extent of his attainments,
it may be stated that besides being the author, editor, and translator
of a variety of publications, some of which may be perused with
advantage even at the present hour, he delivered at one time or other
during his professional career, courses of lectures on chemistry,
pharmacy, surgery, military surgery, diseases of the eye, practice of
physic, and general pathology. Besides professional friends in nearly
all quarters of the world, he could number among his intimate associates
Brougham, Horner, Jeffrey, Pillans, Thomas Thomson, and John Allen,
afterwards private secretary and confidential friend of the late Lord
Holland--friendships which, no doubt, account readily for the appearance
of certain of the productions of his unresting pen on medical topics in
the earlier numbers of the _Edinburgh Review_. We presume that it was to
his long, warmly-cherished intimacy with Mr. Allen that his younger son,
the subject of the present sketch, stands indebted for the baptismal
name he bears. Dr. John Gordon, who, half-a-century ago, was looked upon
as one of the brightest and most promising ornaments of the Edinburgh
Extra Academical Medical School, and whose early death was felt to be
almost a public loss, was among his earlier favourite pupils; the late
Sir James Simpson was one of the last. Dr. Thomson was from his youth
quite a _helluo librorum_, and up to the close of a busy, laborious
life, was a keen student and admirer of the ancient classical literature
of his honourable profession. When an old man, it was no uncommon sight
to see him whiling away a leisure hour with a well-thumbed Greek copy of
the _Aphorisms of Hippocrates_ for his sofa companion. In a home so
graced by all the amenities of lettered and scientific tastes, the
subject of these remarks could not but enjoy, when a youth, many and
great educational advantages. The tutorial shortcomings, if such there
were, whether of High School or College, could not fail to be amply
supplemented beside a domestic hearth predominated over by a father
possessed of such force of character and well-garnered experience. As a
student of medicine, Dr. Thomson held a distinguished place among his
contemporaries, a circumstance which in due time earned for him the
laurel-crown of Edinburgh studenthood, in the form of a presidency of
the Royal Medical Society--a post of honour which had been occupied by
his venerable father also, a quarter of a century before. His curriculum
of professional study completed, and the necessary examinations passed,
he obtained the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the University of
Edinburgh in 1830. At this time it was yet the rule for the aspiring
candidate, ere he could secure the longed-for degree, to compose and
defend a Latin thesis drawn from some department or other of medical
science, and this, like his fellows, had Dr. Thomson to do. "De
Evolutione Cordis Animalibus Vertebratis," was the title of his
dissertation, a subject wide as the poles apart from the customary
jejune hackneyed topics figuring on such an occasion, and, at this
period, one of all others, we would imagine, where learned professors,
if modest men, would in all probability be the pupils, and the trembling
candidate the instructor. It would appear from this that microscopic
embryology has been with Dr. Thomson a favourite field of study and
research from his youth upwards. The inaugural dissertation was,
however, but a brief antepast of something more exhaustive to follow. In
the same year in which he took his degree, we find him coming before the
scientific world through the medium of the _Edinburgh New Philosophical
Journal_, with a series of elaborate papers, entitled "The Development
of the Vascular System in the Foetus in Vertebrated Animals," a
contribution which is admitted on all hands, we believe, to be perhaps
the highest and safest authority on its intricate and recondite
subject-matter that as yet exists. We are not aware whether Dr. Thomson
entered on the study of medicine with any view of going into the arduous
and often unremunerative toils of private practice. If so, the idea must
have been soon abandoned, as we have him, in 1832, becoming a Fellow of
the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh, and thereafter betaking
himself, as an extra academical lecturer, to the teaching of the
Institutes of Medicine. The labours of the class-room would seem,
however, not to have in any way overtasked his energies, as we find that
in the same year he was again before the public as an author. The
publication which saw the light on this occasion was an "Essay on the
Formation of New Blood Vessels in Health and Disease," a subject at once
full of practical interest to both physician and surgeon, and a most
natural supplement to the _magnum opus_ on the development of the
vascular system. The same period, too, occasionally found Dr. Thomson not
unwilling to appear before lay audiences with lucid, instructive
expositions of the structure and functions of our wonderfully-made
frame--a fact, we daresay, of which many middle-aged citizens of
Edinburgh will, even still, retain a pleasing recollection. As regards
his professional courses on physiology, these he continued to deliver up
to 1836, when the removal of his colleague and intimate friend, Dr.
Sharpey, from Edinburgh to the Chair of Anatomy and Physiology of the
London University College, induced him to open classes for extra-mural
students of anatomy, at that time a somewhat numerous body in the
northern metropolis. As prelections and demonstrations on this
fundamental important branch of medical study formed the daily vocation,
at the period spoken of, of not less than three or four private
lecturers--as they were termed--we can well imagine that the labours of
Dr. Thomson, at this point of his career, would by no means be light. In
1839, however, a partial reward for his anxieties and toils came in the
shape of an appointment to the Chair of Anatomy in Marischal College,
Aberdeen, a situation which he had filled for three years, when he was
recalled to the University of his native city to take the place of the
late venerable and widely-venerated Professor Alison. The year which saw
Dr. Thomson transferred to the granite city saw also a valuable
contribution from his pen in the _Edinburgh Medical and Surgical
Journal_, "On the Development of the Human Embryo," an elementary
nucleus, among others, of a series of specially luminous articles by him
on "Circulation," "Generation," and "Ovum," which afterwards appeared in
"Todd's Cyclopediæ of Anatomy and Physiology." After a six years'
incumbency as Professor of Physiology in the University of Edinburgh, he
was, in 1848, presented by the Crown to the Chair of Anatomy in Glasgow
University, at that time vacant in consequence of the death of Dr. James
Jeffrey, who formerly had been its occupant for the long period of 58
years. On coming to Glasgow, he soon gave lively proofs that the
important situation which he had been brought to fill would, in his
hands, be anything other than a sinecure. In his opening address he
modestly promised that he would do his best to preserve the fame which
the place had acquired under his predecessors, and amply has he
fulfilled the pledge. We are led to understand that, alike in
lecture-room and laboratory, everything is carried on with spirit,
decorum, and order, and that what with the efficiency of the prelections
and examinations, aided as these are by a profusion of admirably
executed pictorial illustrations, many of them drawn by the lecturer
himself, the place is, in point of usefulness, outstripped by no
anatomical theatre anywhere, whether at home or abroad. As a lecturer Dr.
Thomson possesses many points of excellence. He is singularly lucid in
his arrangement of his topics, and what he thus arranges so well is
always stated in language at once impressive and perspicuous, while over
all there is a quiet self-possession which has a never-failing power in
subduing pupils, however buoyant or wayward. Dr. Thomson's eminence as a
scientific observer has been attested and recognised by his admission
into the various learned societies, foremost among which may be
mentioned the Royal Societies of Edinburgh and London; and we need
scarcely say that whether as councillor, vice-president, or president,
the Glasgow Philosophical Society has no more active supporter than he.
What the members of the Universities of Glasgow and Aberdeen think of
his qualities as a man of judgment and discretion is well evidenced by
the fact of their selection of him once and again as their
representative in the General Council of Medical Education and
Registration of the United Kingdom, an office fraught, we are led to
believe, with cares and duties of the highest social importance.
At the late meeting of the British Association in Edinburgh, Dr. Thomson
rather startled the scientific world by an address delivered in the
Biological Section, in which he characterised the so-called new science
of spiritualism as the invention of impostors and mountebanks. His
address, which lacked the author's constitutional caution and
discretion, was severely handled in several of the leading journals, and
a trenchant pen, in an Edinburgh cotemporary, "cut up rough" with a
vengeance. Among others who replied to Dr. Thomson's strictures was Dr.
Robert H. Collyer, of London, who claims to be the original discoverer
of electro-biology, phreno-magnetism, and stupefaction, by the
inhalation of narcotic and anæsthetic vapours. In the course of his
address, Dr. Thomson spoke as follows:--"It must be admitted that
extremely curious and rare, and to those who are not acquainted with
nervous phenomena, apparently marvellous phenomena, present themselves
in peculiar states of the nervous system--some of which states may be
induced through the mind, and may be made more and more liable to recur,
and greatly exaggerated by frequent repetition. But making the fullest
allowance for all these conditions, it is still surprising that persons,
otherwise appearing to be within the bounds of sanity, should entertain
a confirmed belief in the possibility of phenomena, which, while they
are at variance with the best established physical laws, have never been
brought under proof by the evidences of the senses, and are opposed to
the dictates of sound judgment. It is so far satisfactory in the
interests of true biological science that no man of note can be named
from the long list of thoroughly well-informed anatomists and
physiologists, who has not treated the belief in the separate existence
of powers of animal magnetism and spiritualism as wild speculations,
devoid of all foundation in the carefully-tested observation of facts.
It has been the habit of the votaries of these systems to assert that
scientific men have neglected or declined to investigate the phenomena
with attention and candour; but nothing can be farther from the truth.
From time to time men of eminence, and fully competent, by their
knowledge of biological phenomena, and their skill and accuracy in
conducting scientific investigation, have made the most patient and
careful examination of the evidence placed before them by the professed
believers and practitioners of so-called magnetic, phreno-magnetic,
electro-biological, and spiritualistic phenomena; and the result has
been uniformly the same in all cases when they were permitted to secure
conditions by which the reality of the phenomena, or the justice of
their interpretation, could be tested--viz., either that the experiments
signally failed to educe the results professed, or that the
experimenters were detected in the most shameless and determined
impostures." This sentence fell among the _savants_ like a bomb, and
"great was the fall thereof." Some have described it as an _ad captandum
vulgus_ use of words, and others have called it rash, and unduly
sceptical. It is proverbial that doctors disagree, and it would be
wonderful indeed if they were of one mind on the mysterious phenomena of
spiritualism.
It would be unpardonable were we to omit reference to Dr. Allen
Thomson's great exertions on behalf of the new University. No member of
the Senate was more zealous and hard-working in raising the necessary
funds for the splendid edifice that now rests on Gilmorehill, and
Professor Thomson was suitably selected to cut the first sod some four
years ago, when the work of erection was commenced.
Like his father, Dr. Allen Thomson has all his life been a consistent
Whig in politics, although in political movements, as such, he has never
taken any very prominent part.
In August last Dr. Thomson received from his _Alma Mater_ the degree of
LL.D.
REV. DR. JOHN CAIRD.
Of the many ornaments which the Established Church of Scotland has
produced, Dr. John Caird is one of the most brilliant as a preacher, as
a thinker, and as a rhetorician. During the comparatively short period
of his ministry, he secured a world-wide fame for the eloquence and
beautiful diction of his sermons, and although his pulpit appearances
are now few and far between, they are sufficiently important to draw
together larger congregations than any Church in Glasgow could possibly
accommodate; to find a prominent place in the newspapers of the day; and
to realise for the author a handsome _honorarium_ for the copyright of
his sermons.
The Rev. Dr. John Caird was born at Greenock, where his father was an
engineer, in 1820. After following out a course of study at the
University of Glasgow, he was licensed as a preacher in 1844. In the
following year he was ordained minister of Newton-upon-Ayre, from which
in 1846 he was translated to Lady Yester's Church, Edinburgh. The
patronage of this appointment lay with the Town Council of the
Metropolis, and Dr. Caird was nominated almost unanimously. Here Dr.
Caird was building up a great reputation--his popularity being quite
extraordinary, and his church habitually crowded--when he found it
necessary to retire to the country to get rid of the demands made upon
his physical energies by a metropolitan congregation. He soon found what
appeared to be a more congenial sphere at Errol in Perthshire, to which
he was translated in 1850, and where he ministered with much acceptance,
drawing to his church strangers from far and near, for a period of
about eight years. It was while at Errol that Dr. Caird fell out with
the more orthodox Calvinists of his church, his breadth of sympathies
failing to meet with approbation from the older members who were still
leavened with the leaven of "persecuting and intolerant principles in
religion." It is related of one old lady that on leaving the church,
after hearing Dr. Caird deliver one of his most powerful and
characteristic sermons, she exclaimed, "What's the use o' gaun to hear
that body preach; ye never get a word o' gospel frae his lips." During
the period of his pastorate at Errol, Dr. Caird preached, in 1865, a
sermon, entitled "The religion of common life," before the Queen at
Crathie. This sermon was subsequently published by her Majesty's
command, and secured a very large sale. Indeed, it is recorded, in an
article on the book trade in Chambers's Cyclopædia, as an evidence of
the kindness which publishers sometimes show to authors, that the Messrs
Blackwood, of Edinburgh, made Dr. Caird a present of £400, in addition
to the £100 which they had agreed to pay him for his Crathie sermon--so
extensive was the sale which, in the form of a shilling pamphlet, it was
able to command. The same sermon was translated on the Continent, under
the auspices of the Chevalier Bunsen, Ambassador from the German Court
to London, who has since died. Bunsen was well known as one of the most
accomplished scholars of his day, and the preface which he wrote for
this sermon suddenly carried the fame of the preacher into all parts of
the Christian world.
In 1857 Dr. Caird accepted a call to Park Church, Glasgow. During the
following year he published a volume of sermons marked by great
chasteness and beauty of language, strength and delicacy of thought,
and, above all, by spirituality of tone, and breadth of earnest sympathy
with men. By this time his fame as a preacher had reached its zenith.
The demands made upon his powers of endurance were such as no one could
possibly last for any length of time. His sermons were not the mere
inspirations of the hour. They were rather like the _chef d'oeuvre_
of a great painter or sculptor--well thought out, carefully and
conscientiously reasoned, and polished until their lustre was perfectly
dazzling. We have before us an extract from _Fraser's Magazine_,
published about this time, which justly estimates Dr. Caird's oratorical
gifts and graces. The writer states that Dr. Caird "begins quietly, but
in a manner which is full of earnestness and feeling; every word is
touched with just the right kind and degree of emphasis; many single
words, and many little sentences which, when you read them do not seem
very remarkable, are given in tones which make them absolutely thrill
through you; you feel that the preacher has in him the elements of a
tragic actor who would rival Kean. The attention of the congregation is
riveted; the silence is breathless; and as the speaker goes on gathering
warmth till he becomes impassioned and impetuous, the tension of the
nerves of the hearer becomes almost painful. There is abundant ornament
in style--if you were cooler you might probably think some of it carried
to the verge of good taste; there is a great amount and variety of the
most expressive, apt, and seemingly unstudied gesticulation; it is
rather as though you were listening to the impulsive Italian speaking
from head to foot, than to the cool and unexcitable Scot. After two or
three such climaxes, with pauses between, after the manner of Dr.
Chalmers, the preacher gathers himself up for his peroration which, with
the tact of the orator, he has made more striking, more touching, more
impressive than any preceding portion of his discourse. He is wound up
often to an excitement which is painful to see. The full deep voice, so
beautifully expressive, already taxed to its utmost extent, breaks into
something which is almost a shriek; the gesticulation becomes wild; the
preacher, who has hitherto held himself to some degree in check, seems
to abandon himself to the full tide of his emotion; you feel that not
even his eloquent lips can do justice to the rush of thought and feeling
within. Two or three minutes in this impassioned strain and the sermon
is done."
In 1862, Dr. Caird was appointed Professor of Divinity in the University
of Glasgow. Since that time his pulpit ministrations have been
comparatively few. In fact, although his eloquence is in some respects
as powerful and unique as ever, his voice has lost much of the charm of
former days, and this is perhaps one of the most weighty reasons that
actuated the reverend gentleman in seeking the _otium cum dignitate_ of
a Professor's chair. As a teacher no less than as a preacher Dr. Caird
has made his mark. In reference to both functions we find personified in
him the attributes of
"Echenus sage, a venerable man,
Whose well-taught mind the present age surpassed,
And joined to that the experience of the last.
Fit words attended on his weighty sense,
And mild persuasion flowed like eloquence."
If there is one thing more than another that has brought Dr. Caird a
special name and reputation as a thinker, it is the broad and somewhat
latitudinarian notions which he holds on religions matters. So far does
he carry his toleration and charity that he has, we believe, given
serious offence to not a few of his most attached admirers in questions
other than religious. Briefly stated, Dr. Caird's belief is that all the
theological distinctions that ever distracted Christendom are not worth
a single breach of charity. In a sermon which he preached before the
Senate, at the opening of the new University Chapel, on the 8th of
January last, he set himself to show that the mere holding of the
Catholic faith, in the sense and form of the creed, cannot be the
essence of religion--first, because the great mass of mankind are
incapable of doing justice to the definitions and evidences of the
creeds; yet need religion, and are, in point of fact, pious in spite of
their want of theological accomplishments; secondly, there is an organ
or faculty of the soul deeper than the intellect, by which (apart from
accurate doctrinal notions) the force of religious realities may be
apprehended and appropriated; and, thirdly, men of the most divergent
and even opposite dogmatic convictions may be, and are, religiously one.
Accordingly, he maintains that the essence of religion must lie in
'something profounder than ecclesiastical and dogmatic considerations.
And could we get at that something--call it spiritual life, godliness,
holiness, self-abnegation, surrender of the soul to God; or, better
still, love and loyalty to Christ as the one Redeemer and Lord of the
spirit--could we pierce deeper than the notions of the understanding to
that strange, sweet, all-subduing temper and habit of spirit, that
climate and atmosphere of heaven in a human breast, should we not find
that there lies the essence of religion?' Religion, in short, is a
matter of feeling rather than of knowledge, a hallowed condition of the
spiritual sentiments and instincts, rather than an orthodox complexion
and arrangement of the spiritual ideas; a thing of the heart rather than
of the head. On this view, it has been argued, though Dr. Caird does not
expressly draw the inference, orthodoxy is not essential to "salvation,"
and heathenism is not a barrier to the blessings of heaven.
One distinguishing characteristic of all Dr. Caird's sermons--and,
indeed, of everything to which he applies himself--is that they are
carefully and conscientiously manipulated. He does not commit himself to
a mere superficial treatment of the subject in hand, but, like John
Bright--to whom in more than one respect he presents a striking
parallel--he takes the utmost pains to provide thoroughly acceptable and
nourishing pabulum for his hearers, believing that whatever is worth
doing, is worth doing well. No man alive has furnished a more fitting
illustration of the lines--
"The heights by great men reached and kept,
Were not attained by sudden flight;
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upwards in the night."
Every sentence which Dr. Caird utters in his discourses is turned and
polished with the consummate art of which he is such a master until it
is a sparkling gem. Hence his diction bears the most crucial test; like
his oratory, his composition is unique.
When the British Association held its meetings in Edinburgh in August,
1871, Dr. John Caird was selected to preach the sermon which it is
customary to deliver before the _savants_ at any town at which they may
happen to meet. On this sermon a pungent critic in a well-known
metropolitan magazine, who rejoices in the _nom de plume_ of Patricius
Walker, Esq., has the following remarks:--"Mr. Caird (who spoke somewhat
huskily, but with much emphasis) was on the broad Liberal tack. He
quoted passages from Herbert, Spencer, Comte, and other modern
philosophers; not showing them up as monsters or deluded--O dear no!--or
taking refuge behind his Bible or any 'cardinal doctrine' of faith, but
professing a profound respect for these writers, and bringing his facts
and logic against their facts and logic. It was a clever exercise and a
very curious discourse to hear in the High Kirk of Edinburgh, but it was
hard to suppose it could do anybody much good.
Says Caird, 'I'll quote and then refute,
Each modern philosophic _doot_'--
And so he did; but each quotation
Seem'd to outweigh the refutation.
Some of the old-fashioned worshippers must have felt uncomfortable, like
the villager who, after a clever sermon on the Evidences of the
Existence of the Deity, said he never thought of doubting it before."
Professor Caird is one of her Majesty's chaplains for Scotland.
REV. DR. NORMAN MACLEOD.
Those who believe in the transmission of hereditary qualities and
predilections from generation to generation will find a rare practical
illustration of their theory in the Rev. Norman Macleod, who is known
and recognised as _par excellence_ Her Majesty's Chaplain for Scotland.
With as unfailing certainty as if they had been regulated by the laws of
primogeniture and entail, this estimable clergyman has inherited the
gifts and graces of his esteemed father. Nay more, he has even fallen
heir to whatever honours and emoluments of value accrued to the latter
during his long and useful career. The two men are in many respects
"similar, though not the same." Both have answered to the same name;
both have been popular preachers; both have held prominent positions in
the Established Church of Scotland; both have prosecuted their
ministerial labours in the same city; and both have been honoured with
special marks of favour and distinction from their Sovereign. There are
other minor points of resemblance upon which we cannot stay to dwell.
Dr. Norman Macleod, the elder, was ordained a minister of the
Established Church at Campbeltown in 1807, where his son, the present
minister of the Barony, was born. From Campbeltown the father removed to
Campsie parish in 1855; and subsequently he was inducted minister of the
Glasgow Gaelic Church, afterwards St. Columba's, in 1836. While in
Glasgow, he preached once in Gaelic and once in English every Sunday.
Like his son, he had broad sympathies, and soared far above the petty
barriers of denominational forms and prejudices. He was Moderator of the
General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1836, and it was greatly
due to his efforts that the Presbyterian Church obtained such a firm
hold in the province of Ulster. In the year 1824 he brought the state of
education in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland so fully and so
eloquently under the notice of the General Assembly that the education
scheme of the Established Church was projected to remedy the evils
pointed out. Along with Principal Baird, he was appointed on three
different occasions to inquire into the existing means of education in
the Highlands and Islands, and in many other ways he contributed
valuable service in "building up," consolidating, and expanding the
distinctive schemes and agencies of the church to which he belonged. His
labours were rewarded by the appointment--through the late Sir Robert
Peel, with whom he had considerable influence--to the envied position of
one of Her Majesty's Chaplains for Scotland, and by his preferment to
the Deanery of the Chapel Royal.
But we have only said so much by way of introduction. It is with the son
and not with the father that we have to deal. Young Norman, after
spending his earlier days amid the rustic environs of his father's
manse--the Scotch equivalent for parsonage--at Campsie, entered the
University of Glasgow as a divinity student. So far as we have been able
to ascertain, he made his first public appearance, while still in his
"teens," at a banquet given to Sir Robert Peel on the occasion of the
right hon. gentleman's installation as Lord Rector of the University of
Glasgow. This event, memorable in the annals of the city, happened on
the 6th Jan. 1837. Considered in relation to all its accessories, the
banquet was perhaps the most brilliant affair of its kind that ever took
place in Glasgow. On making an analysis of the attendance, we find that
there were altogether 3300 gentlemen present, including 12 members of
the peerage, eight baronets, ten members of Parliament, a host of
military men, and all the gentry for many miles round. The total cost of
the feast was £2434 13s 8d, and the toasts were thirty-seven in number.
The fact that Dr. Norman Macleod took a very active part in promoting
Sir Robert Peel's candidature for the Lord Rectorship, which led to this
brilliant gathering, must be our excuse for dwelling upon it at such
length. In recognition of his exertions on Sir Robert's behalf, he was
selected to respond to the toast of "The students of the University of
Glasgow who have done themselves honour by selecting Sir Robert Peel to
fill the office of Lord Rector." There was little in his reply worthy of
quotation. It was neat, appropriate, and well put, and concluded by
expressing the anxious hope that "by the additional means which had been
adopted to promote Conservative principles and to unite Conservative
students within the University, and especially by the establishment of
our 'Peel Club,' the students may continue to heap additional honours
upon themselves by returning Conservative Lord Rectors."
After a very promising career as a divinity student, Dr. Norman Macleod
was at an early age ordained a minister of the Church of Scotland. His
first parish was Loudoun, in Ayrshire, from whence, in 1843, he was
translated to Dalkeith. He laboured with much acceptance in the latter
charge for a period of eleven years, and in 1851 he succeeded the late
Dr. Black as the minister of the Barony Parish of Glasgow--a position
which he still continues to fill. It is related of the doctor that,
while at Dalkeith, he happened one day to be strolling in the
"kirkyard," and met the sexton, a man of venerable years, who took quite
a pleasure in pointing out to the new minister the more notable graves
in the little God's acre. "This," he said, "is where Mr. So-and-So (the
former clergyman of the parish) is buried, and here--pointing to a still
unoccupied lair--is whaur ye'll lie, gin ye be spared!" It is worth
while mentioning that whereas the population of the Barony Parish in
1755 was only about 5000, it had increased in 1850 to 130,000, and at
the present time it is estimated at 200,000, so that Dr. Macleod's
parochial duties and responsibilities have been greatly multiplied since
he entered upon his present important charge.
Dr. Macleod has taken the most active interest in everything relating to
the welfare of the city, while the affairs of his own parish have
afforded him a source of unremitting care and anxiety. With every
movement projected for the purposes of Church extension or the
development of missions in Glasgow he has been closely identified; and
at the present time he is at the front of an association promoted some
eighteen months ago, with the view of providing additional churches in
certain neglected districts of the city. As the result of this
association's efforts, several new churches are now in course of
erection, one of them having been undertaken at Dr. Macleod's express
request. Closely allied to the means of grace are the facilities for the
acquisition of education, and of this important adjunct to the work of
the ministry Dr. Macleod has never for a moment lost sight. No less than
five large schools have been opened in connection with the Barony Church
since he entered upon his parochial duties; and several preaching or
mission stations, at each of which divine service is conducted every
Sunday, have also been opened up, with the most successful results.
The Church of Scotland has not always enjoyed its present exceptional
prestige. The time was when Presbyterianism had anything but a sweet
smelling savour out of Scotland. It is largely due to the efforts of Dr.
Macleod that the merits of Presbyterianism have come to be acknowledged
and its principles understood by other denominations. No man has done
more than Dr. Macleod to make the Church of Scotland famous and to give
her a position in Christendom. His influence both at home and abroad,
his abilities as a preacher, and his graces as a writer, have helped to
bring the Presbyterian Church before the country, and to induce the
respect alike of her friends and rivals.
It is in connection with her missions, more than any other agency of the
Church of Scotland, that Dr. Macleod has made himself conspicuous. In
these he has, from an early period of his ministerial career, taken a
deep and active interest. So far back as the year 1844-45 he was sent
out to Canada, along with his uncle and the late Dr. Simpson of
Kirknewton, as a deputation from the Church of Scotland to inquire into
the progress of the Church in the British Provinces. About four years
ago, he was sent to India in company with Dr. Watson, to visit the
missions of the Church in that country, and on their return to Scotland,
Dr. Macleod published a series of articles, giving the results of his
observations, which excited a considerable amount of public attention,
and elicited among educationists and others a warm discussion. For some
of his statements the rev. gentleman was taken severely to task, it
being argued that he could not, during his limited sojourn in India,
have acquired a sufficient knowledge of the country and its institutions
to enable him to speak with anything like authority on all the subjects
to which he referred.
We believe that Dr. Macleod commenced his career as an author by the
publication, during the fierce heat of the controversy which eventuated
in the Disruption, of three separate pamphlets, each bearing the title,
"Cracks about the Kirk, for Country Folks." Two of these pamphlets,
written in "broad Scotch," were remarkable for their pungency and
effective banter. Although published anonymously, it was generally known
that these pamphlets owed their existence to "young Norman," and they
contributed very materially to establish his growing fame as a writer
and preacher. During the memorable year of the Disruption he was a
member of the General Assembly, and took part in all the controversies
of the day. His efforts to keep up the drooping spirits of the
Establishment are worthy of honourable mention. His boundless good
humour, and cheerful, happy disposition kept alive the enthusiasm of
those who preferred to stick by the Kirk in the greatest crisis she has
ever known, and he was, above all, instrumental in preventing the
missionary operations of the Church from becoming
"To hastening ills a prey."
From that time until now he has never ceased to manifest the warmest
interest in the missions of the Church, watching over them with an
almost paternal zeal and solicitude; and no man in the Establishment is
so well qualified as himself to preside at the Indian Mission Board--an
office which he has occupied with equal credit to himself and advantage
to the church for a number of years.
Many who are quite unacquainted with Dr. Macleod's antecedents, will
have heard of him as the editor of _Good Words_. It is not too much to
assume that even the contributor to a New York journal, who lately
described him as "Dr. Macleod, one of the Court physicians," will know
him in this capacity. Commencing his editorial career on the _Edinburgh
Christian Magazine_, which he conducted from April, 1849, till April,
1869, Dr. Macleod, in the course of the latter year, became connected
with Mr. Strahan; and the _Christian Guest_, which was started in the
beginning of that year, appeared with Dr. Macleod's name as reviser. The
latter magazine, which was published by Messrs. A. Strahan & Co.,
Edinburgh, came to a conclusion at the end of the year which witnessed
its birth, and it was succeeded in January, 1860, by _Good Words_,
published by Messrs. A. Strahan & Co., London, and in which Dr. Macleod's
name appeared as editor. We need hardly criticise the merits of the
latter periodical, which, as we have indicated, owes its origin to the
joint labours of Mr. Strahan and its able editor. From the first it was
conducted on what might be called popular principles--being something
more than a religious magazine pure and simple. The result was that it
grew rapidly in public favour, and commanded the support and approbation
of the highest literary circles. Indeed, it may safely be said that
there is not a moral, religious, or scientific writer of any note that
has not in one form or another contributed something to its contents.
Mr. Gladstone, Dr. Vaughan, the Rev. Charles Kingsley, Dean Alford, and
Mrs. Oliphant are but a few of the many names that have adorned its
pages, and its popularity and merits are still maintained with
undiminished vigour. Mr. Strahan's boundless energy and excellent
discrimination have contributed more to this result than any other
cause; but Dr. Macleod's editorship has at the same time been singularly
able and judicious. Although Dr. Macleod never aspired to rank as a
theological writer, he has in his way been a prolific and successful
author. His works may be said to have merits peculiarly their own. His
graceful, easy, fluent style; his admirable capacity for illustration;
his graphic delineations of scenery and character; and, above all, his
unfailing use of simple, terse, homely Saxon, have combined to place him
in the front rank of living writers. Among his more notable publications
we may mention "The Home School" (Edinburgh, 1856, 12mo), a reprint and
extension of lectures for working men; "Deborah" (Edinburgh, 1857, cr.
8vo), a treatise on the duties of masters and servants; "The Earnest
Student--being memorials of John Mackintosh" (1854, cr. 8vo); "Parish
Papers" (Edinburgh, 1862, 12mo); "Reminiscences of a Highland Parish;"
"The Old Lieutenant;" "The Starling;" and "Wee Davie." He also published
numerous sketches of his travels in the Holy Land, in India, and in the
British provinces. His "Eastward," a diary of travels in Palestine, is
one of the most interesting and instructive works of its kind in our
literature; while his "Far East," in which his Indian experiences are
detailed, is not less full of useful matter. This leads us to mention
the fact that his travels in Palestine were undertaken on his own
account, and solely for the purpose of receiving correct impressions of
the Holy Land, with its hallowed traditions and deeply-interesting
associations. With the same object he has travelled in other lands, and
scarcely a year passes without his visiting some new clime or country,
and thus enriching his great stores of knowledge and observation.
As a preacher Dr. Macleod is great, although lacking some of those
qualities which are essential to a popular and effective pulpit speaker.
Many of his best pulpit efforts, and notably his sermons preached before
the Queen at Crathie, are among the most excellent of their class, and
may be read with as much profit and interest as the discourses of Wesley
and Whitfield. Yet to those who have heard only of his great fame, apart
from the pulpit, and who are naturally led to associate that fame to
some considerable extent with his pulpit utterances, there must, in some
respects, be disappointment in store. His voice is far from musical,
being too much pitched on one key, and that not the most melodious on
the gamut. His discourses lack the fire and finish of Caird or Guthrie;
while his composition and style are neither so graceful nor so polished
as those of Spurgeon or Newman Hall. He makes no attempt at nicely
rounded periods, or subtle verbal distinctions. But he has other
qualities entirely his own. His speech is homely, familiar, almost
conversational. There is no "darkening of counsel with vain words." He
is not only easily understood, but it is difficult, even on the most
recondite points, to misunderstand him. What he states in the plainest
possible phraseology, he renders still more intelligible by some apt
illustration. Herein lies one of the great secrets of his success in the
pulpit. Possessed of a very acute mental faculty and a warm heart, his
sermons are always eminently practical, full of conclusive argument,
appealing directly to the consciences of his hearers, and permeated
above all by strong common sense, called so as _locus a non lucendo_,
because so uncommon even in the pulpit. His thoughts, often strikingly
original, are always expressed in a vigorous, manly style. He does not
hesitate to call a spade by its proper name. Hence he has often been
taken to task for what, gauged by the rule of the Confession of Faith,
would be called loose, if not absolutely heterodox notions on sacred
things. His memorable speech on the Decalogue is a case in point. The
Presbytery of Glasgow woke up one fine morning to find that the minister
of the Barony recommended in almost so many words that the Decalogue,
inasmuch as it was a Judaical institution, was not for modern
Christians. Of course the rev. gentleman brought a hornet's nest about
his ears; and he had to explain away, as best he could, the "damnable
and pernicious doctrine." There are more learned men in the Church of
Scotland, but none have a greater share of sagacity, penetration, and
strong, pungent, mother wit. Another distinguishing trait in the
doctor's character is his charitable and tolerant disposition in
reference to religious things. He does not believe that anything is
gained by denominational differences, and would put an end to the
intestinal strife that separates the various branches of the Church of
Christ. To all who would say, "I am of Paul, or I am of Apollos, or I am
of Cephas!" he has but one reply. Dogmatism is to his broad and liberal
mind a foolish and unnecessary thing in theology, and hence he is to be
found in the van of all progressive and tolerant measures as opposed to
the _odium theologicum_, although in political matters he maintains a
mildly Conservative tone. It is a curious fact that, despite his anxiety
to keep pace with the times, Dr. Macleod has never yet been able to
procure the introduction of an organ to the Barony Church, and it is not
less remarkable that, notwithstanding his popularity both as a preacher,
as a writer, and as a public man, his church, which might reasonably be
expected to be one of the handsomest and largest in the city, is little
better than a village school. Strangers visiting Glasgow are almost
bound to "do" the Barony Church. Dr. Macleod is one of the "lions" of
the city, and people from all quarters flock to see and hear him. Yet
the building in which he preaches is, without exception, the ugliest in
Glasgow, both externally and internally. It is situated in one of the
most ill-favoured localities in the city, although in the immediate
vicinity of the Cathedral and the classic Molendinar, with the statue of
sturdy John Knox looking down upon it from the Pisgah of the
Necropolis--that God's acre of Glasgow worthies through many
generations. Chagrin and dismay will, we fancy, have been the feelings
predominant in the breasts of many who entered the Barony for the first
time. Between the preacher and the pews there is certainly neither
affinity nor _vraisemblance_. Worship is also conducted in the most
primitive fashion. Most of the Established Churches in Glasgow have now
got educated up to the introduction of organs, as accessories of public
worship, but here there is only an indifferently competent choir to lead
the service of praise. Of course the emoluments of the living or parish
are not regulated by "outward and visible signs," or the Barony minister
would only draw a sorry stipend.
We have already had occasion to notice Dr. Macleod's acuteness of
intellect. If there is anything in phrenology, his perceptive faculties
must be very highly developed. Few men are so observant of all that
passes around. Wherever he goes, he puts himself _en rapport_ with his
society for the time being. He can read
Sermons in stones,
Books in the running brooks,
And good in everything.
In this fact we have a sufficient explanation of the rich store of fun
and fancy--of humour and pathos--of anecdote and illustration--upon
which he draws _ad libitum_. Adopting Captain Cuttle's plan, he makes a
note of everything within his reach, and the merest trifles--incidents
which to an ordinary mind would be
Like a snow-flake on the river--
A moment seen, then lost for ever!
he treasures up in the storehouse of a highly retentive memory.
In seeking briefly to analyse the secrets of Dr. Macleod's wide-spread
fame, we are almost constrained to think that they will be found to lie
in qualities belonging to the heart rather than the head. His _bon
hommie_ is unique; he has a rich, pawky humour, which with his own
countrymen is almost worshipped. In all circumstances he displays the
_suaviter in modo_. In short, he is excellent company. "Aye ready!"
might be his motto, if Dr. Macleod has any dealings with the literature
of the Herald's College. He will speak, and that effectively, on any
mortal subject; and if he cannot say much pertaining to the matter in
hand, he will at least say something else, equally or perhaps more
edifying and acceptable.
Of the high position which Dr. Macleod holds in the esteem of Her
Majesty, our readers will have heard and seen so much, that we need say
but little. Since his appointment as one of her Majesty's Chaplains in
Ordinary for Scotland Dr. Macleod has had many gracious marks of Royal
condescension bestowed upon him; and these he has reciprocated by
vindicating, whenever opportunity offered, the character and conduct of
the Queen from the aspersions and calumnies of her detractors. From him
we have had glimpses, now and again, of what transpires behind the
scenes at Balmoral, and we have as it were felt our hearts knitted more
closely than before to a Sovereign who is a pattern to all her sex.
REV. DR. BUCHANAN.
The Rev. Dr. Robert Buchanan has many claims to be esteemed one of the
"Pilgrim Fathers" of the Free Church of Scotland. He was one of the
first to obey the injunction dictated by the Ten Years' Conflict, "Come
out from among them, and be ye separate." Ready to abandon a Church that
adopted principles, and practised a system, of which he could not
approve, he was also in the front van of the handful to whose wisdom,
prescience, and fostering care the Free Church owes its remarkably
successful career. Of the many who took a more or less prominent part in
the Disruption, Dr. Candlish, of Edinburgh, and Dr. Robert Buchanan, of
Glasgow, are now the only two left who have been recognised from the
outset as leaders in the great and memorable crisis. The Free Church has
not within her pale, at the present moment, a man more generally
esteemed, or more influential in all that relates to the discipline and
welfare of the body, than he whose career and character we now propose
briefly to sketch.
The century was very young when Dr. Buchanan first saw the light at the
quiet, rural village of Gargunnock, near Stirling. His father, who
followed mercantile pursuits, was able to give Robert a good, sound
education; and as he displayed, when little more than a child, a
tendency for reasoning and disputation, it was resolved that he should
be brought up for the ministry. After receiving the rudiments of his
education at a country school, he entered the University of Glasgow as a
divinity student. In 1827 he was ordained a minister of the Established
Church of Scotland. His first charge was Saltoun, in East Lothian, where
Principal Fairbairn, his friend and co-worker, subsequently ministered.
From Saltoun Dr. Buchanan came to the Tron Church, Glasgow, in 1834, and
he continued to labour in that congenial sphere until the year 1857,
when, in consequence of circumstances to be afterwards stated, he
entered upon the pastorate of the College Church, where he still
continues to labour with much acceptance. After the Disruption, Dr.
Buchanan, with other 474 ministers that were identified with the
Establishment, formed what has since been known as the Free Church of
Scotland. Leaving the Old Tron, he and his followers made use of the
City Hall for a time, until the Free Tron Church, which was built
specially for Dr. Buchanan's congregation, was completed. The means were
not long awanting to provide a church for a minister so popular and so
well-beloved, and hence the period of his ministry in the City
Hall--that asylum of needy, distressed, and transitional
congregations--was very short.
A movement was set on foot about the year 1855 to change the sphere of
Dr. Buchanan's labours from the Free Tron to the West-End of the city. A
disjunction was drawn up; the advice of Dr. Candlish and Mr. Gray of
Perth was taken as to the proper mode of procedure; a memorial, signed
by about 150 members of his congregation, was laid before Dr. Buchanan,
inviting him to transfer his services to a new church in the West-End;
and a similar memorial was laid before the Presbytery, craving their
consent to the project. After the preliminary arrangements had been
carried out, the disjunctionists found a friend in Dr. Clark of Wester
Moffat, the founder of the Free Church Training College in Glasgow, who
offered, upon the most liberal terms, to provide them with a site. One
of the conditions laid down was that fifty free seats should be reserved
in perpetuity for the use of the students attending the college. It was
also stipulated as a _sine qua non_ that Dr. Buchanan should accompany
the disjunctionists to the new church. Both of these pre-requisites
having been agreed upon, the new College Church was commenced. The total
cost of its erection was upwards of £10,000, and about five years ago
this amount was fully paid off. The new church grew and prospered under
Dr. Buchanan's ministry, until it has now a membership of over 400,
including not a few of the most influential and liberal men in the city.
For the first time in its history, the College Church subscribed last
year the second largest amount of any church in Scotland towards the
Sustentation Fund, the exact sum being £1201, as compared with £3435
raised by St George's, Edinburgh, (Rev. Dr. Candlish's), which stands
highest on the list. The total amount raised last year by the Free
College Church for all purposes was £2939, being higher than the
aggregate of any other church in Glasgow. It is not too much to say that
Dr. Buchanan's admirable financial talents have been greatly
instrumental in bringing the fiscal arrangements of the Free Church to
such a high point of perfection. His eminently methodical and far-seeing
mind set itself to work, immediately the necessity presented itself, to
devise ways and means of putting the ministers of the Church who were
all at once, without any preparation, and many of them under much
physical disadvantage, compelled to bid adieu to "the fleshpots of
Egypt." The ordeal was so terrible that it might well have appalled the
timid. Suffering for conscience sake, these noble-minded men chose to
leave behind them the _Lares_ and _Penates_ belonging to the
Establishment: but their adoption of Moses' choice, did not, after all,
entail much privation. Congregations and ministers alike resolved on
surrendering a position which they could not any longer, with a good
conscience, retain; and both proved equal to the emergency of dealing
with financial problems which all at once they were called upon to
solve. Casting herself promptly and entirely on the system of Free-Will
Offerings as the means of her future sustenance, the Free Church met
with a response so liberal and spontaneous that it is almost without
parallel in history. In all these arrangements Dr. Buchanan took an
active interest, and his sound practical advice was on all occasions of
financial embarrassment consulted by his colleagues. As to the manner in
which these difficulties were met Dr. Buchanan, himself, in a paper
read on the 15th March, 1870, before the Statistical Society of London,
stated that "The Free Church at once and unanimously adopted, as the
backbone of her financial system, the plan of a common fund, to the
support of which all her congregations should contribute, and in the
benefits of which all her ministers should share. With whom the central
idea of the scheme originated it is impossible to say. The very nature
of the case was such as almost inevitably to suggest it to any one who
was seriously and intelligently considering the subject. Of one thing,
however, there can be no doubt or question, that the authorship of the
system of finance, into which the idea now spoken of was gradually
developed, belonged to Thomas Chalmers. It had taken shape in his mind,
and in at least some of its leading features had been put in writing by
his pen in the summer of 1841. It is true that in the autumn of the same
year, and without any notion of the views or plans of Dr. Chalmers, the
principle of a common fund, to be distributed in equal shares, was given
out by Dr. Candlish at a great public meeting held at Edinburgh, in
anticipation of the event which, even then, had begun to loom out, not
indistinctly, through the storm and tempest of the time. It was not,
however, till the month of November, 1842, that it took the form of a
fully-planned scheme for the future support of the church, drawn out in
detail and supported by elaborate argument. This form it assumed in a
speech of great power and eloquence, which is still preserved, and which
was delivered by Dr. Chalmers at a very memorable meeting. The meeting
to which I refer was called 'the convocation,'--a name familiar enough
in England, though descriptive there of a quite different assembly. The
Scotch convocation was not a court, but simply a private, unofficial
conference of ministers interested in the common cause of the then
impending disruption. They met alone, because they desired to look their
position, prospects, and responsibilities calmly and prayerfully in the
face, without being liable, under the influence of public feeling, to
be either turned back or to be carried further or faster forward in the
direction in which events were moving, otherwise than as their own
deliberate judgment and sense of duty might seem to them to sanction and
require."
It is for his labours in connection with the formation of the
Sustentation Fund, of which he has for many years been convener, that
Dr. Buchanan is most prominently known. Indeed, we are not sure but the
idea of a Sustentation Fund was entirely his own--at least he had a
great deal to do with its development. The great object of the
Sustentation Fund is the support of the ministry to the extent and
effect of at least securing for each minister a certain minimum stipend.
From the first it was the aim of the Church to bring up the minimum to
£150, although that was not reached until the year 1863. The
Sustentation Fund Committee, of which Dr. Buchanan has been convener and
chairman ever since the death of Dr. Chalmers in 1847, is appointed
annually by the General Assembly, and consists of about a hundred
ministers and elders, in nearly equal proportion, nominated by the
Assembly, and of one member, who may be either minister or elder,
nominated by each of the fourteen Synods of the Church. The committee
meets once a month in Edinburgh, and is usually attended by about 60
members.
This is scarcely the time or place to enter into an exhaustive account
of the finances of the Free Church, or we might pursue these
observations until we had traced the mighty river that now is, to the
small and comparatively insignificant stream from which it took its
source. The Free Church has set an example to the world in fiscal
arrangements, showing what steady determination, backed by courage and
sound judgment, can eventually accomplish. Not only had the Free Church
to provide means for supporting its ministers, but also for building
places of worship, manses or parsonages, and elementary schools. Since
the Disruption, the Church has built 920 churches, 719 manses, and 597
schools, the total amount raised towards the general and local building
fund during the twenty-six years intervening between May, 1843, and
1869, being £1,667,714. Three Theological Colleges for the training of
candidates for the ministry, and two large and flourishing Normal
Schools have also been provided.
Ministers of the gospel may be divided into two classes. There is the
warm, enthusiastic, emotional evangelist, who flashes across the
ecclesiastical horizon like a meteor, and creates a temporary
"sensation," so to speak, among the dry bones in the valley of vision.
Then there is the more steady-going preacher of the Word, who maintains
an even pace throughout, turning neither to the right nor to the
left--whose _forte_ is to conserve the truth, and keep it alive where it
has once been found. In the latter category we may include Dr. Buchanan.
He is not by any means a brilliant preacher, in the ordinary acceptation
of the term. He does not draw the multitude about him. He is no
Boanerges of the Temple; but he is a giant as regards a firm grasp of
doctrinal truth. He never evolves new shapes or fantastic theories, "won
from the vague and formless infinite;" but he "proves all things," and
"holds fast that which is good." If he is not an essentially popular
preacher--and this is a merit which even his most partial admirers would
scarcely venture to claim for him--he is edifying and didactic, and few
ministers are better qualified to build up and consolidate a church.
Rather too stereotyped (if we may hint such a fault) in his tendencies,
he is yet deeply skilled in the form of sound doctrine, and his style is
terse, vigorous, and polished. There is, perhaps, what not a few would
be disposed to term a want of animation in his pulpit utterances.
Habitually grave and dignified, he seldom indulges in anything like an
ebullition of fancy or of mirth. His sentences are cut, polished, and
beautified like a piece of Parian marble. People are so much accustomed
now-a-days to hear orators whose hearts (like Coriolanus) are upon their
lips, that they have little sympathy with scholarly and erudite
prelections, pure and simple, come from whatsoever quarter they may. But
it does not therefore follow that calm, dispassionate, logical
reasoning, of which Dr. Buchanan is both a master and exponent, is
without its merits and admirers. On the contrary, it is impossible to
sit under the minister of the Free College Church without being "built
up" in all the Christian graces. He is an uncompromising foe to the
Scarlet Lady, to the materialistic tendencies of the present day, to
looseness and infidelity, of every kind, in religious matters; and some
would perhaps object that his sermons are too strongly impregnated with
the Confession of Faith, the Deed of Demission, and the Shorter
Catechism. But he is on this account all the more entitled to rank as a
living embodiment of the principles and practice of the Free Church of
Scotland; and when questions on which a little margin of difference may
be allowed are brought under consideration, Dr. Buchanan will be found
to be tolerant and even liberal in his views. With a presence so
commanding and dignified as to be almost leonine, a deep, melodious
voice, and a head of snowy whiteness, Dr. Buchanan's appearance, as he
ascends to the pulpit, conveys the impression of conscious power. He
enters upon the services of the sanctuary with an evident sense of their
solemnity and importance. No glimpse of humour, no _outré_ illustration,
no divergence from the beaten track is attempted; the heavy and
portentous gravity of his manner and matter is unrelieved by a single
touch of light--all is sombre, deep, profound. One can fancy that Dr.
Buchanan is inclined to think, with Dr. Johnson, that a punster is as bad
as a pickpocket.
But it would be unfair to estimate Dr. Buchanan from his pulpit
appearances only. Listening to his discourses from the pew, one can form
but a faint conception of the greatest merits--the strongest points--of
the minister of the Free College Church. It is in the ecclesiastical
Forum that Dr. Buchanan is found most in his element; there, like Mark
Tapley, he comes out the stronger, the greater the pressure and
opposition brought to bear upon him. No man in the Free Church is more
completely "posted up" in all the questions that come before the
Assembly--no man is more entitled to rank in that body as the Rupert of
debate. In the Glasgow Presbytery he takes a leading part in the
discussion of all prominent questions; and no member is listened to with
greater attention. It is not too much to say that, although he may meet
with a foeman worthy of his steel in the General Assembly, he has not in
the more circumscribed sphere of the local Presbytery, a single rival
who is in any sense his match. The late Dr. Gibson was frequently
accustomed to tackle him, and perhaps he sometimes did so successfully;
but while the latter was undoubtedly an able debater, he lost ground
from his impetuosity of temper--an infirmity to which Dr. Buchanan never
gives way. In all circumstances he is cool, calculating, unruffled; he
measures the full meaning and effect of every sentence; he can be fierce
and withering, and still maintain a calm and composed demeanour. The
gladiatorial conflicts in which these two combatants took part were
often a source of rare amusement even outside the pale of the
Presbytery, and, inasmuch as they were both well fortified with weighty
and telling arguments, the spectacle was not always unedifying. On the
question of Union, as is well known, they took diametrically opposite
views. Many a passage of arms passed between them on this _questio
vexata_, while the younger and less athletic backers surrounded the
arena, waiting the shock with eager anticipation; for
"When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war."
But the one has been taken and the other left; and no man, we believe
will be more ready to do justice to the memory of his deceased
fellow-_confrère_ than Dr. Buchanan himself.
We have specially mentioned the question of Union, because of late years
Dr. Buchanan has closely and completely identified himself with it, and
he is pledged to see it carried through. He has made eloquent and
effective speeches in favour of Union at almost every meeting of the
General Assembly held since it was brought on the _tapis_; and only last
year he opened the debate in an address that has seldom been equalled
for sound argument and rhetorical effect. It would be superfluous to
make any selections or quotations from the rev. gentleman's speeches on
this subject; his views are already well known to all who take an
interest in the cause for which he pleads, and before that cause has
reached its final consummation it is more than likely that he will again
be at Ephesus, fighting on its behalf.
The soundness of his judgment and the eminently dispassionate views
which he is able to take of all questions laid before him are so fully
recognised by his brethren in the Free Church that Dr. Buchanan is
consulted on nearly every matter that relates to the welfare of that
body. He can discriminate so nicely and so fairly on the merits of any
one question submitted for his adjudication--his judicial faculty is so
highly developed, that some of those who know him best have hazarded the
prediction that, had he been trained for the bar instead of for the
pulpit, he would by this time have held the position of Lord President
of the Court of Session. Dr. Buchanan is a man of such varied gifts and
accomplishments that he would have shone in any sphere, and in the
interests of Christianity it is a source of congratulation rather than
otherwise that he chose the pulpit for his profession. In this
connection we may mention the fact that Dr. Buchanan has spoken at many
public meetings of a moral, social, and political, as well as of an
ecclesiastical character. One of his last appearances on the City Hall
platform was on the occasion of a meeting held last year to take
measures for providing additional church accommodation in Glasgow--a
desideratum for which he has often and eloquently pleaded.
As an author, Dr. Buchanan's name will be handed down to posterity--at
least so far as his own church is concerned. His "Ten Year's Conflict"
is the only complete and authoritative record of the causes and effects
of the Disruption that has yet been published. He has also published an
able and scholarly work on the "Ecclesiastes;" while his leisure hours
on a holiday tour in the Mediterranean have been turned to advantage by
his publication of an interesting volume entitled "Clerical Furlough."
MR. ROBERT NAPIER.
In that magnificent work, "London: a Pilgrimage," for which we are
indebted to the joint labours of Gustave Doré and Blanchard Jerrold,
allusion is made to the decadence of the shipbuilding trade on the
Thames, and the rapidly accumulating growth of the same industry on the
Clyde. The contrast is startling, and although it may be gratifying to
the pride of those who are identified with the northern river, it must
create sad and humiliating emotions in the breasts of others who have
seen the "silvery Thames" shorn so completely of her ancient glory and
prestige as a mart of naval architecture. The Clyde has not directly
made capital out of the Thames, but the progress of the one has
undoubtedly been stimulated by the misfortunes of the other. It is
impossible to ignore the fact that the Clyde possessed many advantages
over its rival. Its immediate proximity to almost illimitable fields of
iron and coal, the easy terms upon which shipbuilders could thus obtain
their materials, and the lower wages paid to workmen on the Clyde, had
undoubtedly an important influence in securing for the latter its
exceptionally prosperous career; but there were, at the same time, other
drawbacks to contend with, including a miserably inadequate draught of
water, which in the early history of naval architecture, were only
surmounted by patient continuance in well-doing, by unwearied energy,
and by the most advanced and economical application of the mechanical
arts on which shipbuilding is dependent. These conditions were present
on the Clyde in a greater degree than on the Thames, and hence the fame
of the one has been eclipsed by that of the other. Into all parts of the
civilised world the fame of the Clyde has been carried through the
medium of her shipbuilding works. We still continue to lead the van in
this industry, being so far ahead of all other seats of naval
architecture that by comparison they dwarf into insignificance and "pale
their ineffectual fires." Let the figures speak for themselves. In 1863,
the new tonnage launched on the Clyde was 124,000 tons, while at the end
of that year 140,000 tons additional were on the stocks or under
contract. In 1871 no less than 196,229 were launched, and 301,809 tons
were on the stocks or under contract. Comparing these results with those
attained on the Wear--perhaps the greatest rival to the Clyde in this
particular industry--it appears that the aggregate tonnage launched
during 1863 was 70,040, and during 1871 only 81,903, or in round numbers
11,000 tons additional were launched on that river. It is impossible in
the course of this article to follow the history and analyse the causes
that have contributed so materially to promote the growth of iron
shipbuilding on the Clyde, but it is equally impossible to trace the
lines of Robert Napier's biography without affording a clue to this
marvellous progress.
On the eighteenth day of June, 1791, Mr. Napier was born in the town of
Dumbarton. His father was a blacksmith, and early imparted to his son a
knowledge of the rudiments of that business, so that Robert was not far
wrong when he quaintly remarked that he was born with the hammer in his
hand. The elder Napier occupied, as his forefathers had done before him,
a prominent position in their little town, being a freeman with a
prosperous business, which enabled him to gratify his anxiety to give
his son the benefits of a sound practical education. Ultimately the
latter was apprenticed to his father with the view of following out the
trade of a smith. When he was twenty years of age, young Robert,
determined to fight his way in a less limited sphere, removed to the
Scottish metropolis, where he was employed by Robert Stevenson, the
eminent lighthouse engineer. Latterly, however, he returned to
Dumbarton, and after spending a short time longer in the service of his
father, he permanently settled down in Glasgow, where he started
business on his own account in the month of May, 1815. We are not aware
that Mr. Napier had at this time any intention of eventually going in
for marine architecture. The prospects of that industry were by no means
so assured and encouraging as they have since become. Bell's _Comet_ had
been launched three years before, but it was still regarded even by
practical men as a doubtful venture. It was one of those "inventions
born before their time," which, according to the Emperor Napoleon III.,
"must necessarily remain useless until the level of the common intellect
rises to comprehend them." Thanks, however, to the co-operation of Mr.
David Napier, a cousin of Robert's, who assisted him in the construction
of the Comet, and took a lively personal interest in the advancement of
steam navigation, Bell was enabled to achieve a permanent triumph, and
the subject of these remarks, from the same cause, had his attention
turned at an early period to the revolution which was being silently but
surely evolved out of Bell's achievement. For some years, however,
Robert Napier had to fight an uphill battle with the world. His first
place of business was on a very moderate scale in Greyfriars Wynd, a
place to which it has since imparted an almost classical interest, and
his orders were at first so few that they could easily be overtaken by
himself with the assistance of two apprentices. His experience was
eventually that of the great bulk of mankind, verifying the well-known
aphorism--_labor omnia vincit_. In the course of time he was encouraged
to undertake the general work of an engineer, and his removal from
Greyfriars Wynd to Camlachie Foundry afforded greater scope for the
extension of his operations. While here, he undertook a number of
tolerably large contracts, one of them being for the pipes required by
the Glasgow Water Company when bringing the supply from the upper
reaches of the Clyde. The first land engine made by Mr. Napier is still
in use in Mr. Boak's spinning factory at Dundee. His first essay at
marine engineering was a contract undertaken in 1823, to build the
engines for the Leven, a small paddle-steamer that used to ply between
Glasgow and Dumbarton. When the Leven had been "put on the shelf," after
having served its day, the engines were taken from her and removed to
the Vulcan Foundry in Washington Street, to which Mr. Napier
subsequently removed, and where these interesting memorials of the early
history of a trade which has since assumed such gigantic proportions may
still be viewed.
Succeeding his cousin in the Lancefield Foundry, as he had previously
succeeded him in Camlachie, Mr. Napier was enabled, by the acquisition
of better facilities to undertake a much larger amount of work, and with
Mr. David Elder, an engineer of much experience and inventive genius, as
his manager, he speedily laid the foundations of an altogether
exceptional reputation as a marine engineer. In 1826 he engined the
Eclipse, a vessel employed on the Glasgow and Belfast route; and in 1830
he became connected with the City of Glasgow Steam Packet Company,
projected for the purpose of running first-class vessels between Glasgow
and Liverpool, through which his maritime influence acquired an
additional impetus. Indeed, from this time forward, no steamship company
of any importance was started on the Clyde without Mr. Napier being
called in to consult. In the year 1834, he contracted for and engined
several vessels for the Dundee and London Shipping Company, of which Mr.
George Duncan, late M.P. for Dundee, and a very warm friend of Mr.
Napier's, was a leading director. The Clyde-built vessels belonging to
this concern were admired by all who saw them, and they presented a
marked contrast to the other steamers that were to be seen in the London
Docks.
Mr. Napier engined and supplied the East India Company with the
Berenice, 220 horse power, in the year 1836, and subsequently with the
Zenobia, 280 horse power, both of which were used as war and packet
ships by the company. In 1839, the British Queen followed with engines
of 420 horse power, which were then considered of extraordinary size.
Several finely modelled steam-yachts were also supplied about this time
to the order of that great turf celebrity, the late Mr. Assheton Smith.
Amongst these we may mention the Fire King, 230 horse power, a vessel
which was the first illustration of the hollow-line system, and which
proved itself to be the fastest steamer then afloat. In the year 1840
the Government was induced to enter into a contract with Mr. Napier to
supply engines for two new war vessels, the Vesuvius and Stromboli, and,
when the return for the cost of repairs, &c., of a number of war
ships--including the Vesuvius and Stromboli--was ordered by the House of
Commons in the year 1843, it was found that the work executed by Mr.
Napier stood the test most favourably when compared with that done by
some other engineers, and consequently proved economical to the nation.
The origin of the British and North American Mail Company, or, in other
words, the Cunard Company, in the year 1840, was an event of immense
national and international importance, to the bringing about of which
Mr. Napier contributed both by his counsel, and by his supplying the
first vessels. Sir Samuel Cunard, who was evidently a man of immense
enterprise and rare foresight, came across the Atlantic with the view of
taking measures for the projection of a line of steamships between
London and New York. Having been introduced to Mr. Napier through his
friend Sir James Melvill, of the India House, Sir Samuel contracted with
him for four vessels, each of 900 tons and 300 horse-power. Mr. Napier
assured Sir Samuel at the time that vessels of this size would be
inadequate for the requirements of the Atlantic trade, and suggested
that they should be 1200 tons and 400 horse-power; but as he failed to
alter Sir Samuel's mind on this point, he proceeded with the building of
the vessels according to contract. Only a very short interval had
elapsed however, when Sir Samuel again saw Mr. Napier, with whose views
as to the size of the vessels he declared his complete acquiescence,
although, he added, their cost, if built on the scale proposed by Mr.
Napier, would be too much for him as a private individual to defray.
Upon this Mr. Napier and Sir Samuel took counsel as to the likelihood
and advisability of forming a company, the latter declaring that if he
got a few others to join in the venture, he would go in for the larger
size of vessels. The two Liverpool Companies that were carried on by the
Messrs. Burns, and the City of Glasgow Company, had at this time formed
a sort of coalition, and Mr. Napier took advantage of the circumstance
of their amity to invite both to join in the new Transatlantic
undertaking. At last about twenty gentlemen, most of whom subscribed
£5000 each, entered into the scheme, and of that number we believe that
Mr. Napier, Mr. George Burns, Mr. M'Iver of Liverpool, and Sir James
Campbell are the only survivors. Four vessels of about 1200 tons each
were ordered of Mr. Napier--the Britannia, Acadia, Caledonia, and
Columbia, built respectively by Messrs. Robert Duncan, John Wood,
Charles Wood, and Steele, and all supplied with engines of 400
horse-power by Mr. Napier. Thereafter he furnished the machinery for
other vessels belonging to this company, including the Hibernia,
Cambria, America, Niagara, Europa, Canada, and Arabia. All of these
vessels have now been withdrawn from active service, being superseded by
Mr. Napier's more recent and well-known vessels, Persia, 3000 tons and
850 horse-power; Scotia, 4000 tons, and 1000 horse-power; and China,
2540 tons and 550 horse power. Among more recent specimens of Mr.
Napier's mercantile ships, we may mention the Pereire and Ville de
Paris, 3300 tons and 800 horse-power, belonging to the French Compagnie
Generale Transatlantique. He has likewise constructed the Malabar, 4174
tons and 700 horse-power (one of the finest Government troopships),
which, we believe, has given much satisfaction.
Mr. Napier, we may add, has been very successful in the construction of
machines and war vessels for the British, French, and Turkish-Russian,
and Danish and Dutch navies; and when it was decided to reconstruct the
British navy with armour-clad vessels, Mr. Napier's firm had the honour
of furnishing one of the two armour-clad vessels first built, viz., the
Black Prince, 6040 tons and 800 horse-power; the Audacious and
Invincible, armour-clad frigates, also for the British Government, each
3775 tons and 800 horse-power; two armour-clad turret vessels for the
Dutch Government of large size; and last but not least, the well-known
Hotspur, which was launched in 1870.
There is one circumstance connected with Mr. Napier's career which,
while it may have led eventually to his more intimate and cordial
relations with the Admiralty, must also reflect credit upon his good
sense and accommodating disposition. In the earlier days of steam
navigation, and before it had been applied to Government ships, the
Admiralty were without any school or dockyard where naval officers could
be taught the principles and practice of the science. They tried, but
unsuccessfully, to obtain admission into the more important private
shipbuilding establishments on the Thames, such as Mosley's and
Rennie's; and at last, as a _dernier resort_ they resolved to try the
Clyde. Making their requirements known to Mr. Napier, he received them
with every consideration, and cordially acceded to their wishes, not
only giving them perfect and unrestrained liberty to make use of his own
works, but also securing for them the privilege of sailing free of
charge in many of the vessels that then frequented the port of Glasgow.
Some of these young officers subsequently obtained certificates as to
their knowledge of steam navigation from Mr. Napier; and we understand
that the Lords of the Admiralty did not lightly esteem credentials from
such a source.
Having been so constantly and deeply immersed in the cares of his own
extensive business, Mr. Napier, prior to his complete retirement into
private life, had no time to devote to municipal or imperial politics.
He was, however, even while most engrossed with his own affairs, an
indefatigable promoter and supporter of all movements tending to the
well-being of the city. In the local institutions of engineers and
shipbuilders he has always taken a peculiar interest, and his sympathy
and co-operation were never invoked for a deserving object in vain. In
recognition of the eminent services he has rendered to marine
architecture, he has had many honours heaped upon him. He was a juror
of the Paris Exhibition of 1855, when he received the gold medal of
honour, and the decoration of Knight of the Legion of Honour; he was
chairman of the jury for Class 12 (Naval Architecture, &c.) of the
National Exhibition 1862, and Royal Commissioner of the Paris Exhibition
1867, and then received a grand prize. He was one of the committee for
the organisation of the Fine Art Exhibition in the South Kensington
Museum in 1862, during the Great Exhibition. In the summer of 1864 he
presided at the Glasgow meeting of the Institution of Mechanical
Engineers, of which he was then president; his hospitality on that
occasion will long be remembered by many of the members of the
profession who were present at the meeting. He is also a member of the
Institution of Civil Engineers.
For a number of years past Mr. Napier has lived constantly at his
magnificent residence at West Shandon, on the shores of the Gareloch. In
the erection and furnishing of this palace he has exhibited a most
refined and judicious taste. He has accumulated one of the finest
collections of pictures, old china, and articles of _vertu_ generally to
be found in all Scotland, and an inspection of his valuable and varied
collection is a treat of which the most accomplished virtuoso would
gladly take advantage, and from which he would be sure to learn
something new. The active management of the business of Robert Napier &
Sons now devolves on Mr. John Napier, his youngest son. His other son,
Mr. James R. Napier, who is a Fellow of the Royal Society, and
distinguished for his inventive genius, is engaged in a business of his
own, which he commenced in the year 1857.
To confirm what we have already said as to Mr. Napier's kindly and
benevolent disposition, we might adduce many examples, but that they
were never intended to see the light. In all his acts he is
unostentatious, and seeks to avoid public comment. Perhaps he only
allows one exception to this rule, and that is the splendid monument
which he has erected to the memory of his friend Henry Bell, in the
beautiful little churchyard of Row, within a couple of miles of his own
residence at West Shandon. To this shrine many a pilgrimage has been and
will yet be made.
MR. JAMES WATSON.
Apart from the dignity and importance of his position as Chief
Magistrate of Glasgow, Mr. James Watson has unquestionable claims to be
esteemed and honoured by the citizens of this our "no mean city." His
uprightness and integrity of character, his business tact and ability,
his sound judgment, and his rare administrative talents place him on an
eminence rarely attained. Having received his education at Glasgow
University, Mr. Watson entered a mercantile house in the city, where he
remained for some years, and in which he acquired a considerable
business experience. Subsequently he was connected with the Thistle
Bank, which, as many of our readers will recollect, was ultimately
incorporated with the Union Bank of Scotland. From the Bank he proceeded
to the establishment of Messrs. John M'Call & Co., who were at that time
among the largest grain merchants in Glasgow, and for some years Mr.
Watson presided over their provision department--then of very
considerable extent. When he assumed the profession of a stockbroker,
there were no representatives of that business in the city. It is
perhaps the most interesting feature in Mr. Watson's career that he was
the first stockbroker in Glasgow; and it is no less interesting to
contrast this fact with the position of the Glasgow Stock Exchange at
the present time, when it occupies one of the finest buildings in the
city, and its membership numbers not less than thirty large and
influential firms. Besides these, there are fully a dozen firms of stock
and sharebrokers not members of the Exchange. The first Stock Exchange
in Glasgow was established two or three years after Mr. Watson commenced
business in this capacity, its first local habitation being a building
situated in Buchanan Street, on the site now occupied by the Bedford
Hotel. Previous to that time there were very few joint stock companies
in existence--investors being satisfied for the most part with the sweet
simplicity of three-per-cents. Indeed, the only local companies that
could lay any claim to the name of joint-stock or limited liability,
were the Banks, the Gas and Water Companies, and the Garnkirk Railway.
Mr. Watson continued the only stock and sharebroker in Glasgow for
nearly two years, and in 1833 he took a prominent part in the
establishment of the Glasgow Stock Exchange, of which he was the first
chairman. For 22 years he continued to preside over the Stock Exchange,
while that institution was laying the foundations of the high character
and exceptional prestige which it has since acquired, and through which
it regulates in no small degree the price of stocks and shares in other
markets throughout the world. We may mention, also, that the Stock
Exchange in Glasgow commenced its career with only twelve or fourteen
members, and from this small nucleus it has continued to grow until it
is now one of the most flourishing institutions of the kind in the three
kingdoms.
About 15 years ago Mr. Watson's services were called into requisition in
connection with the winding up of the Ayrshire Iron Company, of which he
was a shareholder. The bankruptcy of this company, as many gentlemen on
'Change will well remember, was induced by the mismanagement of its
affairs. The works of the company were extended far too rapidly, and, in
order to compel business, iron was bought upon credit and sold for cash
at a ruinous sacrifice. The result was that the concern became
insolvent, with liabilities to the extent of £250,000, and without a
copper in the shape of assets except the works at Dalry. It was a
terrible dilemma, and very few of the shareholders were equal to dealing
with the emergency. Mr. Watson, however, undertook the labour of
extricating the company from its awkward position, and his efforts were
ably seconded by those of the late Mr. James Dennistoun, and Mr.
Mansfield, accountant, Edinburgh, assisted by one or two other gentlemen
in Glasgow. On the bankruptcy of the company being announced, Mr. Watson
called a meeting of subscribers, at which the late Mr. W. Brown, of the
_Standard_ office, was appointed to act as secretary. Time was allowed
by the creditors, the money was called up by separate instalments, and
with the aid of £60,000 borrowed from the British Linen and the Bank of
Scotland Banking Companies the name of the concern was kept out of the
_Gazette_. After a period of five or six years the whole affairs of the
company were wound up, and the plant and premises were disposed of to
the Messrs. Baird, of Gartsherrie, for the sum of £20,000, or fully
£70,000 less than they had originally cost. Mr. Watson's efforts, his
patient plodding industry and commercial skill in connection with this
insolvency, were greatly commended at the time; and, indeed, as the
affairs of the company were in a state of the greatest confusion, it
required more than ordinary tact and perseverance to place them on an
intelligible and proper footing.
It would be unpardonable to omit reference to Mr. Watson's intimate
connection with the railway system in the West of Scotland. He was the
first interim secretary of the Glasgow and Ayrshire Railway, which was
promoted in 1836, and he continued to act in that capacity until 1839.
Afterwards he became secretary of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway, in
the promotion of which he was associated with Mr. Andrew Bannatyne, the
late Dean of Faculty, and the first solicitor to the company. It will be
remembered that the first bill of the Edinburgh and Glasgow Railway was
thrown out of Parliament in 1837 owing to the strong opposition raised
against it. In 1838, however, the bill was reintroduced, and
passed--Lord Wm. Bentinck, the then member for Glasgow, being chairman
of the committee. Ultimately Mr. Watson relinquished the office of
railway secretary, but he continued to be associated in the management
of the Edinburgh and Glasgow and Glasgow and South-Western lines with
such men as the late Mr. M'Call, of Daldowie, chairman of the Ayrshire
company; Mr. Fleming, of Claremont; Mr. T. D. Douglas, Mr. Leadbetter,
and Mr. A. Smith, who now lives on the Gareloch, and who, we believe, is
the sole survivor of the original directorate, with the exception of our
townsman, Sir James Campbell. Prior to the establishment of the direct
railway communication with England, Mr. Watson was concerned with the
projection of a line of steamers between Ardrossan and Fleetwood--the
railway only having been carried the length of Sir Hesketh Fleetwood's
estate at that time. By means of this arrangement, in which Mr. Watson
had the cordial co-operation of the directors of the Ayrshire Railway,
passengers leaving London at 10 o'clock forenoon could break the
journey, and obtain the relief of a night's rest in the boat, arriving
in Glasgow at 12 o'clock next day. The vessels on this station were Her
Majesty and the Royal Consort, but they were discontinued when the
direct line to Carlisle was opened up.
The first model lodging-houses established in Glasgow, about 25 years
ago, owe their existence to the efforts of Mr. Watson, assisted by
ex-Provost Blackie, who, with a number of other directors, have since
carried on these establishments, very much to the benefit of the
community at large. There are altogether three of these model
lodging-houses, situated respectively in Carrick Street, M'Alpine
Street, and Greendyke Street, and the very large extent to which they
have been taken advantage of by those for whose benefit they were built
is the best possible justification of their origin.
Mr. Watson's services in connection with the various charitable
institutions in the city are too well known to require comment or
eulogium at our hands. Both in season and out of season he has always
been ready to aid the dissemination of charity and philanthropy, and
perhaps no gentleman in the city is more closely or more generally
identified with institutions of this kind.
In 1863 Mr. Watson commenced his municipal career, having succeeded Mr.
Thomas Buchanan as representative of the Eighth Ward. Two years
afterwards he was appointed a bailie, Mr. Blackie, then Lord Provost,
having invited his co-operation and assistance in the carrying out of
the City Improvement Scheme, which was then in process of being hatched.
Mr. Watson was the first deputy-chairman of the City Improvement Trust,
and he continued to fulfil that onerous and important office up to the
period of his election as Lord Provost, in November 1871. From the very
outset he has been a staunch and eloquent advocate of the improvement
scheme, against which, however, there was a great outcry raised, and
maintained for some time after its adoption by the Council. We may here
notice that the scheme embraced portions of the city covering between 50
and 60 acres, and containing a population of nearly 60,000--being equal
to the entire population of Glasgow and its suburbs 100 years ago. The
valuation of the property to be acquired amounted to £1,200,000, divided
into many small holdings. In the summer of 1865 the preliminaries were
adjusted and in the winter of that year application was made to
Parliament for the requisite powers, which were obtained in the session
of 1866. The Trustees were authorised to acquire the property within
five years, to levy an assessment on the inhabitants not exceeding a
sixpence per pound of rental, with further power to assess for ten years
at threepence per pound to meet the expense for the new streets, and to
provide for payment of the interest of the outlay as a whole. Power was
also obtained to purchase ground for a public park in the north-east
quarter of the city at an expenditure of £40,000. Up to the present time
the Commissioners have spent £900,000; and so successfully have the
affairs of the Trust been managed that there is now enough of revenue to
meet the expenditure, while a large extent of ground remains on hand to
be disposed of, so that it is expected the cost of the scheme to the
public will be even less than the original estimate. The total
properties demolished by the Improvement Trustees up to the 1st December
1871 number 1287 houses, with a gross rental of £7367. Of the usefulness
and sanitary importance of the Improvement Scheme, even those who were
its most determined opponents can scarcely now entertain a doubt. By the
demolition of badly-ventilated and miserable dwellings in the lowest
parts of the town, the Trustees have quickened the supply of low-rented
houses for the working classes, so that within the last two years there
have been erected within the municipal boundaries 1728 houses of one
apartment, 3921 of two apartments, and 1368 of three apartments. It is
not too much to say that from the outset, or at least since Mr. Blackie
left the Council, Bailie Watson has been the head and front of the
Improvement Scheme. He has taken the utmost pains both in and out of the
Council to inculcate its obvious advantages, and it is largely due to
his lucid and practical explanations that the public has been reconciled
to the Act.
When the exigencies of commercial misfortune compelled the late Lord
Provost Arthur to retire from the active discharge of his official
duties, in the autumn of last year, Mr. Watson was at once appointed
acting Chief. He continued to discharge the duties of the office in a
satisfactory and efficient manner until the November election, when he
was requested by the unanimous voice of the Council to allow himself to
be nominated for election to the place of Chief Magistrate. The honour,
we believe, was none of Mr. Watson's own seeking. His time had more than
an adequate demand made upon it in other ways; but he was induced to set
aside his own large and important business for the good of the city.
During the short time he has already sat in the Chief Magistrate's seat,
Mr. Watson has exhibited a marked capacity for public business; and it
is not too much to predict that his administration will be signalised as
one of the most successful and progressive in the annals of the
municipality.
REV. DR. WILLIAM ANDERSON.
The Scottish Pulpit since the time of the Reformation has always been
able to reckon upon some of the most eloquent and thoughtful preachers
of the age. It seems as if the genius of Scotchmen tended towards
ecclesiasticism. Religion, or, rather, theology--for there is an
essential difference between the two--impregnates their whole existence,
and mere children are imbued with pronounced views upon the minutiæ of
doctrinal distinctions, when they might be supposed to know only the
practical bearings of hygienic laws. The Shorter Catechism instead of
cricket and football--the Confession of Faith instead of music or other
lighter accomplishments--have been inculcated by the early fathers of
the Presbyterian Church. Hence the Scottish character is instinct with
gravity, and pervaded by an earnestness that is strangely at variance
with the levity and looseness common to nearly all ranks and conditions
of Englishmen. But while their peculiar form of training has thus
exercised a powerful influence in moulding the character and stamping
the genius of the Scottish people with the sign manual of dogmatism,
otherwise called the _perfervidum Scotorum_, it has also assisted to
secure for Scottish preachers a world-wide reputation for eloquence and
power. Flippancy and sciolism may pass muster at the bar, or even in the
Senate House; but to be effective, the pulpit must possess in a high
degree the qualities of earnestness and an ability to "prove all
things." Few men have been more strongly fortified with these essentials
to success than Dr. William Andersen, minister of John Street United
Presbyterian Church, Glasgow. Born in the year 1799, Dr. Anderson is now
in his seventy-third year. His father was the Rev. John Anderson,
Relief Minister in Kilsyth, who lived to the great age of ninety-two
years, and was in some respects equally as remarkable as his more
celebrated son. Conspicuous for his extensive spiritual knowledge,
vigorous mind, and strong logical power, the father of Dr. Anderson took
a prominent part in the religious controversies of the early part of the
present century. Besides William he had other two sons, both of whom
became ministers of the U.P. Church, and one of whom became his father's
assistant and successor. After receiving the rudiments of his education
at the parish school, Dr. Anderson entered Glasgow University, where he
proved more than an average student. It is worthy of remark, too, that
he laboured under difficulties as a student, which, although by no means
uncommon in our own day, would likely tend to retard the progress of his
studies. His father having only a limited stipend could ill afford to
provide for the expenses contingent on the education of his numerous
family, and we find that William was not above eking out his limited
resources while at the University by undertaking private tuition. Almost
immediately after he was licensed as a minister of the gospel, Dr.
Anderson received a call to John Street U.P. Church, Glasgow--his first
and only charge. This was in the year 1822 when William was only in his
twenty-third year. At the time he entered upon the charge of John Street
Church, the congregation was in anything but a flourishing condition.
Rent by dissentions from without and from within, it was in a lamentably
disorganised state, and presented a decidedly uninviting sphere for the
maiden efforts of a young and inexperienced minister. But William
Anderson was neither disheartened nor dismayed. He approached the work
of reconstructing and assimilating his congregation in a spirit of love
and charity, which, mingled with tact and firmness, succeeded in
subduing the anarchy and mismanagement that had previously prevailed.
His victory over the turbulent spirits under his charge was as signal
and complete as that he had achieved over the Presbytery, which in
March, 1822, consented to his ordination, after having threatened to
ostracise him on the ground that he would persist, under all
circumstances, in reading his discourses. But that which George
Gilfillan has happily described as the "tender mercies of a Scotch
Presbytery," did not induce him to turn aside from his purpose, or to
make an abject and inglorious submission. From his first start in life,
Dr. Anderson showed that he not only held opinions of his own, but unless
there was some cogent reason to the contrary, he clung to them
tenaciously. So it was with the _casus belli_ of manuscripts in the
pulpit. Failing to understand that the use of "the paper" could
interfere in the remotest degree with the due and proper effect of the
pulpit, and knowing that he could not do either himself or his
congregation adequate justice by extempore preaching, Dr. Anderson
continued to adhere to written sermons, until the Presbytery at last
gave way, leaving him master of the situation. The feud between Dr.
Anderson and his Presbytery has been described by himself as "the eleven
months of anguish to which I was subjected by the prosecution--I do not
say persecution--of the Presbytery for my using my manuscript in the
pulpit, and for certain alleged errors and improprieties in my
preaching, such as--that in two of my sermons I had quoted Shakespeare."
This contretemps proves that the Presbyterian Church was as strongly
opposed to the use of manuscripts in the pulpit half a century ago as it
is now--or was until lately--to the introduction of organs as
accessories of public worship. Fortunately, we have fallen on more
tolerant and tolerable times.
If the interference of the Presbytery had no other effect, it tended to
secure for the subject of these remarks an exceptional amount of public
attention at a very early period of his ministerial career. People were
naturally solicitous to improve their acquaintance with the young man,
little more than out of his teens, who had had the hardihood to brave
the discipline and upset the prejudices of a whole Presbytery on a
question which, at that time of day, was considered to be of vital
importance. Contrary, in all probability, to his own expectations,
Anderson woke up one fine morning to find himself famous. Although there
were few outward and visible signs of approval with his rebellious
spirit, he yet retained in secret the countenance of many colleagues in
the ministry, who had long pined for a freer and more tolerable
ecclesiastical atmosphere, and the issue of Dr. Anderson's independence
had the proximate result of achieving their release from one of the most
grievous and galling fetters imposed upon them by the exacting and
puritanical spirit of the times--a spirit which, however well it may
have answered the requirements of a less enlightened age, was an insult
to the freedom of action that belonged to the nineteenth century. While
the Presbytery was left in anything but a dignified position, Dr.
Anderson could confidently say, "Veni, vidi, vici!" It was the old story
over again. It was not one of the pillars in Israel--it was one of the
weak things of the Church that was chosen to confound the mighty.
From the first, Dr. Anderson secured a rare measure of popularity as a
preacher. His zeal, energy, and power were acknowledged on all hands,
and it is no small tribute to his genius and popularity that in a city
where Dr. Chambers was still in the zenith of his fame, where Dr.
Wardlaw had built up his splendid reputation, and where, last but not
least, Edward Irving was making his magic influence felt, Dr. Anderson
was able, not only to hold his own, but to make fresh friends and
admirers every day. He seemed to have a special talent for drawing the
multitude about him. And yet it was not done by any dexterous shuffle of
the theological cards, or by pandering to the morbid passions and
tickling the vanities and weaknesses of his hearers. He never hesitated
to tell his hearers that they were poor, and miserable, and blind, and
naked. Thackeray has ridiculed the idea of a man with a long rent-roll,
and a comfortable cushioned pew, believing himself to be a miserable
sinner; but, he must have been obtuse indeed who would not wince under
this rough and _bizarre_, but terribly earnest and fervid preacher. For
a long period he gave a series of evening lectures which were crowded
to suffocation, and as the fame of him went abroad throughout all the
city, he was often the cynosure of eyes that were neither friendly nor
devout. But, if he sometimes failed to make a deep impression, he always
succeeded in persuading his hearers of the seriousness and importance of
eternal things, so that "many who came to laugh remained to pray."
In most of the great political and ecclesiastical controversies of his
day, Dr. Anderson has stood forward as the unflinching champion of
justice and mercy. He was a prominent and effective speaker on the
Voluntary question; and he rendered effective service to the movement
for the repeal of the slave trade. Besides these pet themes, Dr.
Anderson has always been a vigorous assailant of Popery, on which he has
spoken perhaps more frequently, and with greater effect, than any other
man of his time. During his crusade against Popery he received an
anonymous letter threatening that if he proceeded with his lectures on
the subject of the Mass, his life would be in danger. Nothing daunted,
however, he sent the anonymous letter to the head of the Roman Catholic
Church in Glasgow, with the intimation that it was still his intention
to persevere with his lectures despite threats and cajolery. About this
time he challenged to a public discussion the well-known Dr. Cahill, who
was then regarded as the champion of the Romish Church in this country.
His challenge was respectfully declined; but so bitter was the _animus_
raised against him that on more than one occasion he had to be escorted
to the platform of the City Hall by policemen. Finally, he overcame the
opposition of the Papists so far as to secure a patient hearing, and it
has since been admitted that his lectures were greatly instrumental in
arousing public opinion to a just sense of the errors and insidious
influence of the priests and the Papacy. There are, doubtless, not a few
still living in Glasgow who will remember Dr. Anderson's scathing
denunciations of American slavery and the strong sympathy which, from
the outbreak of the civil war, he expressed with the Federals. When
Henry Ward Beecher visited and lectured in Glasgow, he was supported by
Dr. Anderson, who spoke so bitterly and with such emphatic
disapprobation against the Southern States and their policy, that his
sentiments evoked the hisses of his audience. Nothing discomfited, he
pursued the even tenor of his way, until he reached the climax of his
argument, when bearing down upon his opponents with irresistible force,
he cried out, in a voice of triumph, "Hiss, noo, gin ye dare." On that
occasion he created a profound impression by his eloquent appeal to Mr.
Ward Beecher to interpose with his countrymen to avert from Britain the
consequences which her sympathies for the slave-holding States had
justly entailed.
For the greater part of his long ministerial career, Dr. Anderson was
without a colleague. About ten years ago, however, the congregation
called the Rev. Alex. Macleod (now of Birkenhead) to become his
assistant, and he was succeeded in 1865 by the Rev. David M'Ewan of
College Street Church, Edinburgh, upon whom the active duties of the
pastorate now devolve. Some years previous to Dr. M'Ewan's appointment
the old church in John Street was removed, and the present splendid
edifice was erected at a cost of upwards of £10,000. It is undoubtedly
one of the most handsome and comfortable churches in the city, and
presents some architectural features of a unique character.
Although Dr. Anderson has not been a very voluminous writer, some of his
works are well known and generally appreciated. His earliest
productions, issued in the shape of pamphlets on the subjects of the
hour, have not acquired any lasting celebrity; but one or two subsequent
publications, notably his "Treatise on Regeneration," and a volume of
sermons that appeared in 1844 (and now, we believe, out of print), have
placed him in the front rank as a theologian. Some time afterwards he
issued a second volume of sermons which were very favourably reviewed,
and elicited a complimentary notice from Lord Brougham. Among his later
literary efforts we may specify a "Treatise on the Popish Mass," a
"Treatise on the Millennium," and a volume on "The Filial honour of
God."
On the occasion of his jubilee Dr. Anderson was entertained by his
friends and admirers to a dinner in Carrick's Royal Hotel, and on the
same evening (March 7, 1871) he was presented, at a soiree held in the
City Hall (which was crowded in every part), with a cheque for £1200, as
a mark of esteem for his character and talents. On both occasions the
chair was occupied by the Rev. David M'Ewan, his estimable colleague and
successor, who made the presentation. Dr. Anderson declined to accept the
money for himself, but gave it back to be funded for scholarships in
connection with the United Presbyterian Church, to be called the
"William Anderson Scholarships." In acknowledging the gift the recipient
made a characteristic speech, remarking that "in '68, in the course of
one month, I preached (at canonical hours, observe) in an Independent
Church, an Established Church, a Free Church, and a Methodist Church. A
short time before that I had preached in a Baptist Church; and, latterly
I have preached in two churches of the Evangelical Union, and I have had
a Sabbath afternoon of more than common congeniality of feeling in
fellowship with a church of the Reformed Presbyterians."
REV. DR. JOHN KER.
Glasgow seems to be peculiarly favourable to the growth of United
Presbyterianism. It is the great stronghold of that body--the garrison
from which they send out skirmishing parties all over the world. Some of
the wealthiest congregations, as well as some of the ablest ministers in
Glasgow belong to this denomination. The "dissidence of dissent" has
found favour in the eyes of our merchant princes, and among all ranks
and conditions of men the views which, when promulgated by Ebenezer
Erskine, caused a shudder to pass through the lines of the hard and
fast, albeit not over conscientious theologians of his day, are now
hailed with toleration and cordial approval. The growth of United
Presbyterianism is one of the most remarkable chapters in our
ecclesiastical history. The principles upon which this particular form
of creed are founded must be sound at the core, otherwise they could
never have achieved such signal and lasting triumphs; but their
development was entrusted to men of rare energy, discrimination, and
ability--men who have left behind them no unworthy prototypes, although
the lines have fallen to the latter in more pleasant places, and their
heritage is of a more excellent kind.
The Rev. Dr. John Ker occupies, as his character and accomplishments
entitle him to do, a prominent place among the "reverend fathers and
brethren" of the United Presbyterian Church. He was born at Tweedsmuir,
in the upland pastoral district of Peeblesshire, where his father was a
farmer. Here he spent the first years of his childhood, a circumstance
which had probably more influence on his future character and tendencies
than might be supposed on the first blush. "The boy is father to the
man," and while he was yet a mere child, Dr. Ker was laying up a store
of memoranda bearing upon the romantic vicissitudes of the "good old
times, when George the First was King;" or, perhaps, long anterior to
that much vaunted period. The isolated condition of the peasantry and
agricultural classes generally in those days prevented the free and
constant intercourse which may now be found all over Scotland. Railways
had not yet been evolved from the matrix of the future, newspapers were
scarce and dear, books were few, the means of education and mental
improvement were limited, and thus in the rural districts the
reminiscences of the past were handed down in the form of traditions,
communicated orally from generation to generation, or assuming the less
perishable shape of ballad literature. Young Ker's mind, which was ever
ready to receive and retain impressions, became the conservatory of a
vast selection of ancient lore, written and unwritten, which he has
never forgotten. His memory is quite an encylopædia of ballads and
stories, which it would probably be difficult, if not impossible, to
find elsewhere, and upon this rich storehouse he can and does draw _ad
libitum_ "for doctrine, for instruction, for reproof," or for the
entertainment of his friends. Dr. Ker's ancestors of five generations lie
buried in the little rural churchyard at Tweedsmuir, a spot, of which
Lord Cockburn says, "It is the most romantic in Scotland." Many are the
stories that are still told by the "ingle cheek" of farmers' houses in
that deeply interesting locality, relative to the Covenanters who lived
in the glens around, and the soldiers who went up there in the '45.
After completing his studies as a Divinity student at Edinburgh--where
he was a most distinguished student, and was universally regarded as a
young man of excellent promise--Dr. Ker was licensed as a minister of
the United Presbyterian Church. He was ordained in the year 1845, his
first charge being in Alnwick, Northumberland, where he continued to
minister until the year 1851. During the interval he received several
calls from Glasgow and elsewhere. Twice he was called to preside over
the United Presbyterian Church in East Campbell Street of this city. The
first call he decidedly refused; but upon representations being made to
him that the church was in anything but a satisfactory condition, so far
as its pastorate was concerned--both Dr. Kidston and Dr. Brash, who then
presided over it, being in infirm health and disqualified for the active
discharge of ministerial duties--Dr. Ker, foreseeing no doubt that there
was a large and ample field in Glasgow for the exercise of his energy
and talents, at last agreed to accept the call. His ultimate consent was
given, we believe, mainly through the importunity of the Rev. Dr.
Taylor, who has for many years been his most attached and intimate
friend. Dr. Taylor went to Alnwick with the view of seeing and arranging
personally with Dr. Ker; and it is a notable fact that although Dr. Ker
had determined to treat the second call as he had treated the first--by
returning a distinct and unqualified refusal--Dr. Taylor's entreaties
had the effect of inducing him to alter his decision. So far, indeed,
had Dr. Ker's mind been made up that he had actually written a letter
negativing the call, and the letter was on its way to Glasgow while Dr.
Taylor was _en route_ to Alnwick, the two having thus crossed each
other. We do not, however, believe that Dr. Ker has had any reason to
regret his decision. The field that was open for his efforts in Glasgow
was much more extensive if not more congenial than that presented by a
remote country town like Alnwick, and Dr. Ker has been instrumental in
raising up a congregation second to none in Glasgow as regards numbers
and influence. Shortly after he removed to Glasgow an effort was made to
secure a more eligible church for his large and increasing congregation,
which was at length removed from East Campbell Street to Sidney Place.
The new church cost upwards of £8000, and the opening services were
conducted by Dr. Edmond and Dr. Cairns of Berwick, the respected pastor
being himself absent at the time from ill health. At the present hour
there are upwards of 800 members in connection with Sidney Place Church,
and it is seldom indeed that the membership of a church covers so wide
a radius, some coming four and six miles every Sunday.
During the first few years of his residence in Glasgow, and even prior
to that date, Dr. Ker was most zealous and indefatigable in the promotion
of every good word and work. No one was more frequently before the
public during the years 1854-55-56 as the upholder of truth, as the
advocate of justice, as the bitter and uncompromising foe of error and
ignorance, as the alleviator of misery and distress. The amount of
physical and mental work which he undertook during these years was more
than any ordinary mortal could stand; but it was to him a labour of
love, and he did not stay his hand until an enfeebled and broken-down
constitution warned him that the laws of nature had been transgressed.
Dryden has described Shaftesbury as
A fiery soul, which, working out its way,
Fretted the puny body to decay,
And o'er-informed the tenement of clay;
and it has all along been Dr. Ker's misfortune that his body would not
bear the strain imposed upon it by his active and vigorous mind. As
might be supposed, he was at this time a prominent speaker in the Church
Courts, where his sage counsel and kindly disposition made him a
favourite and a power. In 1857 he was requested by the Synod of his own
Church to accept the office of Home Mission Secretary. The whole Synod
stood up in token of their approval and esteem when the appointment was
moved; and Dr. Andrew Thomson of Edinburgh, in supporting the nomination
of Dr. Ker, remarked of him that "his very presence was a benediction."
To the infinite disappointment of the Synod, however, Dr. Ker declined,
for private and no doubt weighty reasons, to undertake the appointment.
The choice of the Synod then fell on Dr. M'Gill, who continued to
discharge the functions of Home Mission Secretary with zeal and
efficiency until he was changed to the "Foreign Office." The result of
too close attention to his ministerial duties led Dr. Ker into a
dangerous illness, from which he suffered severely for a period of three
years. During that time he visited many places both at home and abroad,
travelling in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, and America. In the
course of these journeys Dr. Ker cultivated his _penchant_ for
antiquarian lore and old traditions. He also improved his very extensive
knowledge of the Continental languages; and there are few men so
thoroughly conversant with German, French, and Italian, who have not
made these languages a special study. In addition to modern languages,
however, Dr. Ker is a master of Greek, Latin, and Hebrew.
At the time of the Irish revivals several years ago, Dr. Ker took a deep
interest in the spiritual awakening, and he travelled over the country
with the view of assisting its promotion, preaching very frequently
every day in the week. Nothing is more remarkable in Dr. Ker's character
than the immense power of mental and physical endurance he has displayed
as a preacher. He has not unfrequently delivered four sermons or
homilies in one Sunday, besides preaching more or less frequently during
the week. These sermons are not thrown off on the spur of the moment.
Every pulpit effort is thoughtfully and carefully prepared beforehand.
His readiness to preach and assist in every good work has been largely
taken advantage of by the numerous charitable and religious societies in
Glasgow, which have, perhaps, rather ungenerously taxed his good nature
and anxiety to make himself useful.
Although Dr. Ker has seldom been prominently before the public in
connection with political or social agitations, he has all along taken
an active part in the establishment and advancement of Sunday and day
schools and missionary schemes. At the same time he has been ready to
assist in any movement of a political kind that presented itself to his
view as one worthy of support and encouragement. While he is always
earnest and conscientious in his pulpit and platform labours, he can
out-Spurgeon Spurgeon in his gift of pointing a moral, with an amusing
illustration. His alternations between grave and gay are always in
season; he takes good heed to Solomon's admonition that "there is a
time for everything." But while he sometimes condescends to tickle the
midriff of his hearers, consciously or unconsciously--for his quaint yet
pungent remarks are not unfrequently the inspirations of the moment--he
can afford to indulge his relish for humour without let or hindrance at
a select party or by his own fireside. In either of these situations his
solid and volatile qualities appear to vie with each other for the
mastery. With quips and jokes, apposite and sparkling, he "is wont to
set the table in a roar." Hence his society is much courted.
As a preacher, Dr. Ker has few if any superiors in Glasgow. His
imagination is very fine and subtle, although not so exuberant and
flowery as many other speakers who have an equally ready flow of
language. He is apt in illustration, and he generally contrives to set
forth his arguments in the most intelligible and convincing form; but he
does not introduce illustrations for the mere sake of rhetorical effect.
He rather makes every figure of speech to arise as it were by a natural
sequence in the course of his reasoning, and few men have a greater
facility for making "crooked paths straight, and rough places plain."
The most abstruse and knotty points he makes so obvious and clear that
his hearers are inclined to wonder why they did not think of them in
that light before--giving to themselves, or to the merits of the
question in hand, a credit that is only due to the preacher whose
discernment has removed the lions of doubt and difficulty from the path
of the reader or hearer. As a _litterateur_ his taste is highly
cultivated, and his discriminating judgment enables him to compose
sermons the diction of which is as beautiful as the argument is sound.
By all who know him, and especially by his congregation, he is very much
esteemed for his literary gifts and graces, and the public appreciation
of his sermons is attested by the fact that a volume which he published
several years since, has gone through eight large editions, the last
edition having been issued only a few months ago. It is perhaps a pity
that Dr. Ker has not been constrained to adopt Mr. Spurgeon's plan of
publishing his sermons regularly as they are delivered. They would
certainly form a serial literature that the people of Glasgow would not
be slow to appreciate.
REV. DR. JOHN EADIE.
The Rev. Dr. Eadie was born in 1813, at Alva, in Stirlingshire, where
his parents occupied a comparatively humble rank in life. After
receiving the rudiments of his education at the school of Tillicoultry,
in which he afterwards became assistant to the Rev. Mr. Browning, a man
of uncommon ability both as a preacher and as a thinker, Dr. Eadie
entered the University of Glasgow, where he pursued his studies on a
more extended scale. From the University he went to the United Secession
Divinity Hall, with the view of qualifying himself for a place in the
ministry of that Church. At the University he was a most successful
student, and distinguished himself more especially by his knowledge of
Latin and Greek. This is all the more noteworthy when it is remembered
that during his University career he had the private tuition of many
students to undertake. Dr. Eadie's first charge was Cambridge Street
U.P. Church. At the time he entered upon that charge he was only over 21
years' of age, and it is a fact worth recording that, within three
months of being licensed, he was called to and bold enough to accept a
city charge. Cambridge Street Church was built about nine months before
Dr. Eadie became its pastor. Commencing with a membership of only 60, he
raised his church during his pastorate of over 25 years to a membership
of 1100, many of his adherents being the foremost men in connection with
the U.P. body in Glasgow, of which the rev. gentleman himself soon
became a distinguished ornament. Before leaving Cambridge Street to
enter upon his new church in Great Western Road, Dr. Eadie, on his
semi-jubilee, was presented by his congregation with a purse containing
300 guineas and a silver salver, and he then informed his congregation
that "they had changed his wages five times, every change representing a
substantial advance." Many of his West-End members found Cambridge
Street too great a distance to come to worship on the Sabbath day, and
Dr. Eadie removed with them to Lansdowne U.P. Church, where he has
gathered a large and aristocratic congregation. We believe that Dr.
Eadie is the only U.P. minister in Glasgow who has been the first pastor
of two new churches, the only parallel case within our knowledge being
that of Dr. M'Ewen, who first founded a new church at Helensburgh, and
afterwards in Claremont Street, Glasgow. From the Great Western Road Dr.
Eadie's church has a commanding appearance. It is built in accordance
with the strictest Gothic principles, and has one of the finest spires
in the city. Its cost was about £12,000, and of this sum upwards of
£1200 was raised on the occasion of its opening.
In the month of May, 1843, Dr. Eadie was chosen Professor of Biblical
Literature in the Divinity Hall of the U.P. Church. He delivered his
first lecture in the month of August following. By his students the rev.
gentleman is greatly esteemed and beloved, none the less so that he
imposes upon them mental discipline of the strictest and most severe
description. It is perhaps even more owing to his _entente cordiale_
with his students, than because of his eminence as a preacher and
author, that Dr. Eadie has been so often selected to open new churches
all over the country. Certain it is that no minister in the U.P. Church
has been more frequently called into requisition for "special services"
both at home and abroad. One of the last new churches he opened was in
Dundee, when the collections taken on a single Sunday amounted to £1090.
He also opened the church of Dr. Macfarlane, of London; and along with
Dr. Alexander, of Edinburgh, he took part in the inauguration services
of Springhill College, Birmingham. We may here mention the well-known
fact that Dr. Eadie has been appointed to the Moderator's Chair in the
U.P. Synod--the highest office in the power of the Church to confer;
and, although he has never taken a very prominent part in the Church
Courts, his speeches are invariably full of weighty matter and sound
argument. He spoke strongly in the Synod for toleration as to the use of
organs in public worship. In the negotiations for Union with the Free
Church he has taken a peculiar interest. Although he has received calls
from other churches, Dr. Eadie has steadfastly maintained his attachment
to Glasgow. In the year 1846 he was twice called to Rose Street U.P.
Church, Edinburgh--Dr. Finlayson's--but the call was met each time with
a firm refusal.
Dr. Eadie first brought himself into prominent notice as an author by
the publication of a manual of Cruden, intended for popular use, about
the year 1841. This abridged concordance has had an enormous sale among
all classes, both at home and abroad. Up to the year 1850 it had gone
through no fewer than fourteen different editions, and we believe that
the latest edition issued is either the twenty-first or the
twenty-third. The preface to Dr. Eadie's "Cruden" was furnished by Dr.
King, and is a masterly performance of its kind. It is worth while
noticing that no other copy of "Cruden" is used or recognised by the
Tract Society, who have at different times issued it on their own
account. In 1848 Dr. Eadie published his Biblical Cyclopædia, of which
in 1868 twenty-four thousand copies had been sold, being upwards of one
thousand every year. Of the merits of this work we need not here speak,
as to all of our readers it must be known more or less familiarly. It is
essentially what it professes to be--a dictionary of history,
antiquities, geography, natural history, sacred analysis, biography, and
Biblical literature generally, illustrative of the Old and New
Testaments. He has also compiled from Henry and Scott a Bible which has
gone through many editions, and has commanded a sale of not fewer than
60,000 or 70,000 copies. First published in folio form, it had been sold
within seven years to the tune of 36,000 copies, and thousands of
working men were enabled from the cheapness with which it was issued,
to possess themselves of this Bible who might otherwise never have had a
Family Bible in their houses. The first edition was issued in 1851, and
in Sept., 1858, another and still larger edition was put through the
press. Dr. Eadie published in 1856 a work entitled "An Analytical
Concordance of the Holy Scriptures, or the Bible presented under
distinct and classified heads and topics," published by Richard Griffin
& Co., London. In 1862 he published an "Ecclesiastical Cyclopædia of
antiquities, architecture, controversies, denominations, doctrines,
governments, heresies, history, liturgies, rights, monastic orders, and
modern Judaism." As the biographer of the well-known and esteemed Dr.
Kitto, Dr. Eadie has also achieved a considerable reputation. Collected
from papers furnished by Dr. Kitto's personal friends, this biography is
perhaps one of the best and most interesting in the English literature,
and it deservedly met with a very large circulation. In a surprisingly
short space of time it went through several editions, and even at the
present day it is referred to and quoted as an authority on
ecclesiastical matters of a particular kind. Dr. Kitto was one of the
best Biblical scholars of his day. Like Dr. Eadie himself, he was
possessed of an extraordinary memory, and highly cultivated lingual
powers; and after he returned from the East he was frequently employed
to do literary work for Mr. Charles Knight, for whom also Dr. Eadie
contributed occasional papers. In short, the one man was eminently
qualified, both by his acquirements, by his disposition, and by the
exceptional facilities which he enjoyed, to become the biographer of the
other, and Dr. Eadie has approached his task with such a spirit of love,
and with so genuine and well-founded an esteem of the man whose Boswell
he aspired to be, that the biography will rank in some respects almost
equal with that of Dr. Johnson. Some years later, Dr. Eadie published
through the Messrs. Oliphant, of Edinburgh, a series of lectures on the
Bible for the young, which met with a very large sale. He has also
written and published a well known work entitled "Divine Life," being a
series of discourses, most of which were preached from time to time to
his own congregation, and all of them breathing a spirit of true
orthodoxy and Christian feeling. In 1859 he issued another book called
"Paul the Preacher; or a popular and practical exposition of his
discourses and speeches as recorded in the Acts of the Apostles," a work
which is treated in the author's best style, and displays much evidence
of high literary attainments. In addition to works already quoted, and
comprising many years of arduous toil and research, Dr. Eadie has
published a series of Commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul,
commencing in 1853 with that of the Ephesians. This was followed in 1856
by his Commentary to the Colossians; in 1859 by his Commentary to the
Phillipians; and in 1869 by his Commentary to the Galatians. Upon these
Commentaries, and upon his popular handbooks to sacred literature,
namely, his Cruden's Concordance, his Biblical Cyclopædia, and his
Ecclesiastical Cyclopædia--Dr. Eadie's well-earned fame as a biblical
scholar and author will securely last for generations. Next to the
profound knowledge displayed in his works, we are struck with Dr.
Eadie's surpassing fertility as a writer. Very few men, indeed, have
published so many works within so short a compass of time; and it is a
marked characteristic of all books bearing his sign-manual, that they
are masterly both in style and in matter, that they have been well and
carefully thought out, and that they display great learning and
extraordinary research. We must not forget that while thus copiously
contributing to ecclesiastical literature, Dr. Eadie gave unremitting
attention to his pulpit duties. He never had a coadjutor or assistant,
and he has occupied his own and other pulpits every Sunday since the
date of his ordination. And even the long list we have enumerated does
not complete Dr. Eadie's literary efforts, for we find him contributing
now to Dr. Kitto's and Principal Fairbairn's Biblical Cyclopædia
(published by Blackie, Glasgow), then to the "North British Review," and
again to the "Journal of Sacred Literature." Several of his works are
now out of print, but all of them are of untold value in their way, and
are highly esteemed by those best qualified to form a just estimate of
their merits. Dr. Eadie is a member of the Committee for the Revision of
the New Testament; a post which he holds conjointly with Professor Brown
and Professor Milligan, of Aberdeen, the only other Presbyterian members
of the New Testament Revision Committee who belong to Scotland. The
Committee, we may here explain, commenced its sittings in June of 1870.
Once a month it is accustomed to meet in the Jerusalem Chamber,
Westminster Abbey--a room fraught with the most interesting historical
recollections, for it was here that the Commissioners met who drew up
the Scottish Confession of Faith, and here also the Lower House of
Convocation is accustomed to hold its sittings. After deliberating for
two years, the Committee have only as yet reached the end of Saint
Luke's Gospel. The labour incumbent upon the Committee may be estimated
to some extent by the fact that for four days in every month it sits,
without any interval, from eleven o'clock forenoon till six o'clock in
the evening.
Dr. Eadie's literary and scientific attainments have been recognised and
rewarded by the degree of LL.D. from Glasgow University, while the
University of St. Andrews has conferred upon him the degree of D.D. He
is a member of several learned bodies, and is also chaplain of the 19th
Lanarkshire Rifle Volunteers.
MR. DANIEL MACNEE, R.S.A.
Among Scotch artists Mr. Daniel Macnee occupies a conspicuous place,
while in Glasgow, his adopted city, he stands at the head of his
profession. Born in Fintry, in Stirlingshire, he was destined originally
for mercantile pursuits, but from an early age he showed an
unmistakeable bent for the profession of an artist, and even while at
school receiving the rudiments of his education, he used to while away
his leisure hours by drawing different subjects, especially portraits,
for which he showed a considerable aptitude. About 1820 he was
apprenticed to Mr. John Knox, a teacher of drawing, in Glasgow, who was
celebrated as a landscape painter, and than whom no one was ever better
qualified to teach the principles and practice of art. Associated with
Mr. Macnee at this time were Mr. Horatio M'Culloch and other young men
who subsequently became artists of eminence, and the lessons imparted by
Mr. Knox laid the foundations of the correct taste and careful attention
to detail which distinguished all of his more illustrious pupils. After
attending Mr. Knox's classes for a period of four years, Mr. Macnee
proceeded to Edinburgh and entered himself as a pupil under Sir William
Allan, who was at that time head of an institution termed the Honourable
Board of Trustees for Manufactures in Scotland, which was established in
terms of an Act of Parliament passed at the time of the Union, towards
"encouraging and promoting the fisheries and such other manufactures and
improvements in Scotland as may conduce to the general good of the
United Kingdom." The funds set apart for the maintainance of this
Institution amounted to £2000 a year, and in carrying out the purposes
of the Act, the Trustees, originally twenty-one in number, offered
premiums for the best designs or drawings of patterns for the
improvement of manufactures. In 1760 a master was permanently appointed
to instruct the youth of both sexes in drawing, thus laying the
foundation of the School of Design, which existed and prospered under
the management of the Board for more than a century afterwards. The main
reason for the establishment of this Board was a fear on the part of the
promoters that by the Act of Union the manufactures and arts of Scotland
would be transferred to England, and thus be prejudiced to a very
considerable extent. Sir William Allan was an artist of great power and
varied experience. Mr. Thomas Duncan, who afterwards became an Associate
of the Royal Academy, and produced a number of high-class pictures, with
which all lovers of art are familiar, was one of Sir W. Allan's pupils,
contemporaneously with Mr. Macnee, and from this coincidence, a
friendship, which was life-long and intimate, sprang up between them,
but it was unhappily severed by the early death of Duncan. Sir David
Wilkie, Sir William Allan, Sir John Watson Gordon, Burnet, the engraver
and painter, Lizars, the Lauders, the Faeds, and other painters of note,
were students in the Trustees' Academy. It may be remarked in passing,
that this Board is still in existence, but instead of being controlled,
as originally intended, by a certain number of trustees, it is under the
management of the Department of Science and Arts at South Kensington.
Mr. Macnee's studies at this time were various, but they principally
took the shape of drawings from the antique statues. When he first went
to Edinburgh, Mr. Macnee became connected with Mr. Lizars, the eminent
engraver, by whom he was employed in executing anatomical drawings,
colouring engravings, and other cognate works, which greatly tended to
amplify his experience, and through Mr. Lizars he obtained numerous
commissions from lithographers in Edinburgh, which brought him in
emoluments of considerable value. Having completed his studies under Sir
W. Allan, Mr. Macnee set up in Edinburgh as a professional artist on
his own account, and for several years he continued to paint portraits
and finished sketches from ordinary life. He returned to Glasgow in the
year 1832, since which he has resided, except at rare intervals, in the
Metropolis of the West. For a number of years subsequent to his taking
up his residence here, he was largely employed in executing crayon
portraits, and he was a large exhibitor at most of the Art Exhibitions
in Edinburgh, London, Glasgow, and elsewhere. Indeed, it is perhaps not
too much to say that Mr. Macnee has exhibited more pictures in the Royal
Scottish Academy than any other living artist.
The first pictures exhibited by Mr. Macnee in the Royal Academy of
London were portraits of Sir Charles, afterwards Lord Hardinge, and
General Messurier, hereditary Governor of Guernsey. The latter picture
was executed for the States' Hall, in Guernsey, where it is still
exhibited. In 1855 he showed a portrait of Dr. Wardlaw in the French
Exhibition at Paris, and for which he was awarded a gold medal, being
one of three medals that were then secured by Scotch artists. The other
two fell to Sir John Watson Gordon, and Mr. Hamilton, the architect of
the High School of Edinburgh, respectively. Among other notable pictures
executed by Mr. Macnee we may mention his portrait of Lord Brougham,
which is now in the Parliament House, Edinburgh, and for which his
lordship sat only a few years before his death. Before being hung in the
Parliament House, this picture was exhibited in the Royal Academy of
London, and attracted a considerable amount of attention. A portrait of
Viscount Lord Melville, which he executed for the Archers' Hall, and
another picture of Lord Belhaven, painted for the County Hall, in
Lanark, are also considered two of his most excellent works. Since the
death of Mr. Graham Gilbert, Mr. Macnee has been without a rival in the
West of Scotland, and there are not more than one or two artists in
Edinburgh who have any pretensions to compete with him as a portrait
painter. In the painting of presentation portraits, Mr. Macnee's
services are largely called into requisition, both in London, where he
has been accustomed to spend three months during each summer for a
number of years past, and in the West of Scotland. Among his earliest
and most attached friends were Horatio M'Culloch, and Mr. L. Leitch,
also a Glasgow artist, and, perhaps, the most accomplished water-colour
painter of the day. It was Mr. Leitch who instructed Her Majesty in this
department of art, and he has been largely employed by the nobility both
of Scotland and of England, in imparting instruction in this study.
The Royal Scottish Academy, of which Mr. Daniel Macnee has for many
years been a prominent member, was established forty-five years ago.
Previous to that date an organisation, named the "Institution for the
Encouragement of the Fine Arts," founded on the 1st of February, 1819,
on the principle of the British Institution of London, was carried on
for the purpose of having annual exhibitions of pictures by the old
masters, as well as the works of living artists. This association
consisted of noblemen and gentlemen, who, by the payment of £50, became
shareholders or life members. By its constitution "no artist was capable
of being elected on any committee, or of voting as a governor, while he
continued a professional artist." This and the superscilious treatment
which they received in other respects caused great discontent among the
artists who were associate members. In the nature of things such a
disagreeable relationship could not last, and, consequently, in the year
1826, several of the associates, disgusted with the treatment to which
they were subjected, commenced making arrangements to found a Scottish
Academy. A document was handed round containing the proposal to found
this Academy, which, when published, had twenty-four names attached to
it, viz., thirteen academicians, nine associates, and two associate
engravers, the original number of the Academy's members. Mr. Macnee was
not one of the original promoters of the Academy but some of his works
were shown at their first exhibition, which took place in February,
1827. This opening exhibition was not so successful as might have been
expected. The Academy had to compete with the Royal Institution already
alluded to, which had many things in its favour, and was backed by the
influence of a large number of the nobility, from the King downwards.
The second exhibition, however, was more successful, and for the third
exhibition such energetic efforts were put forth that the Royal
Institution was fairly driven from the field. Ultimately, under the
award of Lord Cockburn and Mr. John Hope, afterwards Lord Justice-Clerk,
the two institutions amalgamated under the name of the Royal Scottish
Academy. It is one of the standing rules of the Academy that the members
shall not number more than thirty-nine, and those artists who are
ultimately admitted to membership are obliged to graduate as associates
for some time previously. Mr. Daniel Macnee and his friend Duncan were
exceptions to this rule. They were admitted at once as full members
without any previous association, an honour which was due to the great
promise they exhibited in their earlier career, and which both have
amply fulfilled in their maturer years. There are thirty members and
twenty associates of the Royal Scottish Academy.
Having said so much as to Mr. Macnee's professional career and
abilities, it would be doing him scant justice were we not to allude to
his excellent social qualities. Full of animal spirits and humour, he is
one of the favoured few who have been described by De Quincey as drawing
the double prize of a fine intellect and a healthy stomach, and having
none of what Burke has called "the master vice Sloth" about him, he gets
through an enormous amount of work, while he cultivates the social
amenities of life to the fullest possible extent. "Dan" Macnee is a
universal favourite. No dinner party in the upper circles of Glasgow
society is fully complete without him; and no one ever met him for the
first time without forming the impression that he was a "jolly good
fellow"--an impression which is strengthened by a more matured
acquaintance. He is one of the most amiable of men, having a benignant
smile and a kindly word for everybody, and many of the most
entertaining post-prandial jokes and stories are fathered upon him,
sometimes justly and at other times wrongly, simply because he is known
by all diners-out to excel in this form of entertainment. In short, Mr.
Macnee is exactly what Carlyle described Sir William Hamilton to be,
"finely social and human," and wherever he may chance to meet with
company he leaves behind him a pleasant memory.
MR. THOMAS CORBETT.
Practical philanthropy is a rare virtue. It is seldom that a Howard or a
Wilberforce is born into the world; yet there are few towns that do not
possess men more or less distinguished for their good offices towards
their less fortunate fellow-creatures. Of such men Glasgow has happily
had more than an average share. The number and variety of our
charitable, friendly, and educational institutions bears testimony to
the presence in our midst of a spirit zealous of good works. Our
merchant princes, too, subscribe most liberally to every movement
projected for the amelioration of the moral, social, or religious
condition of the lapsed masses. The story of our lives from year to year
is one that contains many bright spots in which the recording angel must
take pleasure, although it is also darkened by not a few stains so
black, foul, and ghastly, that we are led to despair of ever attaining
the ends for which the Church and the State are existent--for which laws
and religion are inculcated and enforced.
Mr. Thomas Corbett is a philanthropist of the most practical kind. He
does not distribute his means like milk spilled upon the ground, which
cannot be gathered up again; neither does he take cognisance of merely
speculative benevolence. Everything to which he has put his hand has
prospered, and he has thus laid the foundations of a good name, which is
better than all his riches--a name which the working men of his native
city will be slow to forget. It is with the establishment of the Great
Western Cooking Depôt that Mr. Corbett's name is most prominently
identified. That institution, we believe, owes its origin to a very
simple and quite an accidental circumstance. While reading in the
_Cornhill Magazine_ the account of a scheme that had been launched by a
lady in England for providing poor and destitute children with food,
Mrs. Corbett was struck with the idea that something of the kind might
be attempted in Glasgow. She mentioned her thought to her husband, and
asked him if, out of their abundance, they could not do something to
relieve the wants of those to whom the lines had fallen in less pleasant
places. Mr. Corbett entered heartily into the project, and determined to
set apart a certain sum, to be vested in the way that his wife might
deem most likely to do good. At last, the idea of a cooking depôt was
broached. Mr. Corbett foresaw with the eye of a political economist, as
well as with the eye of philanthropist, that the best and most effectual
means of doing good to the poor and needy in Glasgow, was to assist them
to help themselves. Upon this principle he resolved to proceed. Nothing
in the shape of the "Great Western" was at that time in existence. Mr.
Corbett sent a messenger to London and elsewhere with the view of
gathering information that would assist the carrying out of his scheme;
but nothing could be found to meet exactly his conception of what a
cooking depôt should be. Proceeding, however, upon his own views of the
requirements of the city, he invested £300 in the lease and fitting up
of a cooking depôt at the Broomielaw, beside the Sailor's Home. It was
given out that the establishment was to be conducted upon the principle
of supplying provisions at as nearly prime cost as possible. A tariff of
charges was prepared, contracts were entered into with butchers, bakers,
and other tradesmen, and the experiment was thus fairly launched. It was
a great success. The Americans have faith in the "almighty dollar." Mr.
Corbett had an equally firm belief in the efficacy of the "almighty
penny," as a circulating medium. He took care that, so far as it was
practicable, nothing should be sold for more than a penny. A bowl of
porridge, that might satisfy a hungry man for breakfast, was to be had
for what Montague Tigg would call this "absurdly low figure." A plate of
potatoes, an egg, or a cup of coffee, cost no more. The very novelty of
the thing drew thousands to the cooking depôt who had no economical
purpose to serve. They were more than satisfied. Many who came, like the
scoffer to the church in Goldsmith's "Deserted Village," to criticise
and condemn the new institution, remained to admire and praise it. The
depôt became so popular that other branches had to be opened up in a
very short time in the most central parts of the city. Mr. Corbett did
not hesitate to supply the funds necessary for the development of his
scheme. He bestowed his means ungrudgingly, stipulating only that the
books should be periodically examined by competent accountants, and that
the profits should be divided among the charitable and benevolent
institutions in the city. Beyond receiving a certain interest for his
money, Mr. Corbett has never fingered a farthing of the profits, and
when he left Glasgow a few years ago he had invested altogether upwards
of £8000 in the scheme. The accumulated profits, which have been
divided, according to his behest, for charitable purposes, amount to
upwards of £7000.
With the management and chief characteristics of the Great Western
Cooking Depôt every citizen must be familiar. The cooking establishment
is situated in Pitt Street, from whence enormous supplies of victuals
are sent out every morning to all parts of the city. Including Glasgow
and its suburbs, there are now twenty-eight branches of the Cooking
Depôt in operation. Most of them are in the immediate vicinity of public
works, and are largely taken advantage of by the workmen, who, in the
great majority of cases, reside at a considerable distance from the
works, and could only go home to dinner at great personal inconvenience.
The same tariff of charges prevails at every one of the branches, and
all of them are supplied direct from the Central Depôt. The business of
the institution has become so gigantic that applications to establish
other branches in different parts of the city have had to be refused.
The principal branches are in Jamaica Street and Mitchell Lane. These
two buildings were built by Mr. Corbett himself; but the branches at the
public works have mostly been built by the employers, who rent it to the
manager of the Cooking Depôt for a nominal sum. At the Mitchell Lane
branch from 1400 to 1600 people dine daily. The Jamaica Street branch
dines an almost equally large number. The milk of 140 cows, obtained
from four of the largest dairies in Scotland, is consumed at the various
branches every day; and the consumption of "cookies" and rolls averages
20,000 per diem. Some idea of the quantity of porridge consumed may be
gathered from the fact that the cost of oatmeal is from £90 to £100
monthly; and of eggs, butter, butcher's meat, and vegetables the
consumption is fabulous. The average daily number of visitors to the
depôt at its various branches since the month of August last has been
10,000 to 12,000. The daily attendance at the present time is greater
than it has ever been before. The attendance is not confined to working
men, so called. Clerks, shopkeepers, and strangers to the city patronize
the depôt most liberally. And well they may, for when eggs are selling
elsewhere at 1s 4d they can be had in the "Great Western" for a penny
each, and other provisions are sold in the same proportion. This result
is only possible by balancing one period of the year with another, so
that when provisions are much cheaper the difference will be made up.
The question has often been asked, why has the Great Western Cooking
Depôt turned out such a marvellous success as compared with institutions
of a similar kind in other parts of the country? The most simple and
correct answer is that other cooking depots though similar were not the
same. An attempt was made in London some years ago to establish a
restaurant on the same principle, but although it was backed by the
advice and influence of Lord Houghton and some other leading men, it
proved a complete failure. It is a trite saying that "too many cooks
spoil the broth," but in this instance the saying was verified. A large
committee was appointed to take charge of the arrangements. A committee
means divided management and conflicting opinions. So far as the Great
Western is concerned, everything from the out set has been under the
control of one man (Mr. Jenkins) who still continues to preside over the
destinies of the institution. But the vigorous and able management of
the Great Western had not more to do with its success than the demand
which it was fitted to supply. There had been nothing of the same kind
previously in existence, and it was only necessary for the establishment
to be opened to command support. With regard to its moral aspects, the
depôt occupies a high platform. Nothing in the shape of intoxicating
liquors is allowed to be sold on the premises. When counselled to
introduce beer as an adjunct to dinner, Mr. Corbett replied that sooner
than relinquish the principle of conducting the establishment on a
strictly temperance footing, he would shut it up altogether. The good
sense of this resolution has been proved by the results, for despite the
enormous number of working men who frequent it, there has never been a
police case arising out of a disturbance in any of the branches. In
Bradford, some years ago, Mr. Isaac Holden projected a cooking depôt on
the principle of the "Great Western," but with this important
difference--that he made it partake of the dual character of a club and
an eating-house by introducing spirituous liquors and games of different
sorts. What between smoking and drinking, the place became too noisy and
rough for respectable men to have anything to do with it, and after
lingering for some months it died an inglorious death, showing that
"Whoever tries
To rob the poor man of his beer."
does a not injudicious thing, so far as institutions of this kind are
concerned. Before taking leave of the Cooking Depôt, we may state that
it has been visited by many illustrious personages, who have manifested
a deep interest in its history and progress. Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone,
when they visited Glasgow some years ago, were shown all over one of
the branches, and had the _modus operandi_ thoroughly explained to them
by Mr. Melvin, who has always acted as Mr. Corbett's right hand man. The
Premier was very curious to see the kind of broth that could be produced
at a penny per bowl, and both he and Mrs. Gladstone, after tasting the
soup, pronounced it to be very excellent and wholesome. The commercial
aspect of the institution was, however, its most interesting phase to
Mr. Gladstone, who could hardly understand how such a gigantic
establishment could be made to pay with such small profits. Ultimately
it was explained to him that it was a fixed rule to have a farthing of
profit on every pennyworth sold, to which he replied that "he knew
something of the power of the farthing."
Mr. Corbett was the founder, along with his friend, Mr. Melvin, of the
Working Men's Club in Trongate. He expended a sum of £250 in furnishing
the club, and laid down certain conditions for its management, the most
important of which was that it should be conducted on strictly
temperance principles. Having got such a capital start, the Club has
never looked behind it. It is now worth fully £1100, and last year the
number of visitors was upwards of 100,000.
Under the auspices of the Central Club, a Working Men's Industrial
Exhibition was held during the winter of 1865-66 in the Polytechnic
Buildings, Argyle Street. The preliminary outlay for this exhibition was
considerable. Mr. Corbett was appealed to, and he at once gave a cheque
for £500 to start the exhibition, intimating that he should not expect
to be recouped if it was a failure. Happily it turned out otherwise, for
a sum of £1200 was cleared by the exhibition, and it gave the Central
Club an impetus that it has never since lost. Why has the experiment not
been repeated? Has the Central Working Men's Club lost its cunning?
The latest, but not the least important exhibition of Mr. Corbett's
philanthropy to which we shall refer is his bequest of £2000 to Mr.
William Quarrier, for the founding of a Home for Destitute and Orphan
Children. To the results of Mr. Quarrier's scheme allusion has from time
to time been made in the local prints. We need only remark here that it
is calculated to supply one of the most pressing and important social
and moral wants of the city.
The part which Mr. Corbett has taken in connection with the
establishment of a Seaside Home at Saltcoats is so generally known that
to refer to it is enough. For the permanent support of these homes, he
has built a number of model working men's dwellings at Whiteinch. The
architectural and other arrangements of these homes were planned by Mr.
Corbett himself. There are altogether sixteen dwellings from each of
which a rent of £10 per annum is drawn. Altogether, Mr. Corbett has
expended about £1500 upon the Saltcoats Homes, in addition to what he
has provided by way of endowment.
With reference to Mr. Corbett's family history, we have left ourselves
little room to speak. His father was a doctor in the Gorbals, and
Thomas, after having been educated at the High School of Glasgow,
commenced business as a tea merchant. While trading in this capacity he
turned his attention to shipping, and in the course of time he went into
the Australian produce trade altogether, freighting vessels on a large
scale to and from Glasgow. His Australian business has been so
prosperous that he was induced a few years ago to remove altogether to
London, where it could have more scope. He still continues to reside in
the Metropolis, although he retains a lively interest in the affairs of
his native city, which he visits at least once a year, while passing to
and from his beautiful marine residence at Kilcreggan.
EDWARD S. GORDON, M.P.
Mr. Edward Strathern Gordon, the member for the Glasgow and Aberdeen
Universities, is a son of the late Major John Gordon, of the 2d Queen's
Royal Regiment, by Catherine, daughter of Alexander Smith, Esq. Born at
Inverness in 1814, he is now in his fifty-seventh year, although he
wears so well that he would readily be mistaken for a much younger man.
After having received a very superior education, first at the Royal
Academy of his native town, and subsequently at the University of
Edinburgh, he was called to the Scotch bar in 1835, being then only in
his twenty-first year. He early discovered a peculiar aptitude for
mastering knotty points of law, and during the whole of his long and
distinguished legal career he has worked very hard, and spared no
effort, to acquire that knowledge of dry, technical, and abstruse
details with which the statute-books abound, and to be well grounded in
which is essential to soundness or eminence in jurisprudence. In 1858
Mr. Gordon entered upon the responsible duties of Sheriff of Perthshire.
In that capacity his decisions were awarded with an impartiality and
rigid adherence both to the letter and to the spirit of the _lex
scripti_ that caused them to be often quoted in the inferior courts. By
his superiors his talents were so far recognised that in 1866 he
received the appointment of Solicitor-General for Scotland, and his
place as Sheriff of Perthshire was allotted to Sheriff Barclay.
Mr. Gordon only held the Solicitor-Generalship for a single year, when
he was elevated to the still more distinguished post of Lord Advocate,
on the accession to political power of the Disraeli administration.
Coming in with the Tories, Mr. Gordon was likewise compelled to go out
with them; and as they were only allowed to hold the reins of office for
a year, his tenure of the Lord Advocateship was very short lived. Some
measure of compensation was, however, obtained for his loss of the
highest legal office in the Scottish administration, by Mr. Gordon's
appointment in November, 1869, as Dean of the Faculty of Advocates. This
is one of the most honourable, if not one of the most lucrative offices
in Scotland, and Mr. Gordon's selection as the successor of many of the
most distinguished pleaders at the Scottish bar showed that, although
rejected by the country, he was not despised by his professional
brethren.
It is, however, for his political rather than for his legal abilities
that Mr. Gordon is known, although, of course, he could not have earned
such a reputation in St. Stephen's but for his knowledge of Scotch law.
Although short, his Parliamentary career has neither been uneventful nor
inglorious. Simultaneously with his return for Thetford, he was
appointed Lord Advocate for Scotland; and although some of his
detractors have argued that he was only selected to fill that post
because the Conservatives could not find another man, it is hardly
credible that the Court of Session is so barren of Tory talent and
leanings. Besides, the malicious insinuation has been completely
disproved by Mr. Gordon's zealous and efficient discharge of the duties
of his office, in which his conduct completely vindicated the choice of
his party. Unfortunately for his own peace of mind, Mr. Gordon
identified himself with a rotten borough. Thetford is a constituency on
the East Coast Railway, near to Norwich, which had in 1861 a population
of 4208, and returned two members to Parliament. At present the
constituency only numbers about 200. Although the ancient borough of
Thetford, which was in the seventh century the see of the bishopric of
Norfolk and Suffolk, had many claims to the veneration of Parliament,
and the affection of the Conservative party, to which it had been
faithful for generations, it was doomed by the inevitable decree of
destiny, of which--sad to tell! its best and most devoted friends were
the ministers, to political dismemberment; and Mr. Gordon, having been
dispossessed, at one blow, of his seat in the House of Commons and his
place in the Cabinet, was compelled to seek for
"Fresh fields and pastures new."
He had not long to wait. At the general election of 1868 he contested
the Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities with the Right Hon. James
Moncrieff. A very severe struggle took place; indeed, the contest may
justly be described as one of the most bitter and hotly contested that
ever took place in Scotland; and both in Glasgow and in Aberdeen it gave
rise to a great deal of animosity and personal feeling, which will be
long remembered, and the effects of which, we believe, have not yet
completely died out. In the end, however, Mr. Moncrieff beat his
opponent by sixty-seven votes, a majority so small in proportion to the
constituency that the bitterness and humiliation of defeat must have
been felt with more than ordinary poignancy. It seemed at that time as
if the Conservatives would never have another chance of lifting their
heads above water. There were few constituencies in Scotland on which
they could place perfect reliance, and the Universities of Glasgow and
Aberdeen they regarded as a special preserve--as their own inalienable
and chartered possession; but this confidence was scarcely justified by
the result, and they were not permitted even the satisfaction of
recording of the most intelligent constituency in Scotland that--
"Amid the faithless, faithful only they."
The appointment of Mr. Moncrieff to the Lord Justice Clerkship in
November, 1869, caused a new writ to be issued for Glasgow and Aberdeen
Universities, and Mr. Gordon again came forward as a candidate. On this
occasion, however, he was opposed by Mr. Archibald Smith, who appeared
in the Liberal interest. Mr. Smith had neither the influence nor the
abilities of James Moncrieff; he was a comparatively untried man, and
almost his sole claim to the support of the Universities was his Liberal
promises and proclivities. Such a candidate was evidently no match for
Mr. Gordon, whose defeat in the preceding year, after a severe and
plucky fight, had drawn towards his interest the sympathies of not a few
who differed from him on political questions. Hence Mr. Gordon was
triumphantly returned at the head of the poll, which stood at the
close--
Edward S. Gordon 2120
Archibald Smith 1616
The result of this election was looked forward to with eager expectation
by men of all shades of politics throughout the length and breadth of
the land. In Glasgow, as we can well remember, the excitement was
intense, although the proceedings were, upon the whole, of an orderly
character.
Mr. Gordon has voted with his party on all the great questions that have
come before Parliament since he entered the House of Commons. During the
last two sessions he was very regular in his attendance to legislative
duties, and made several telling speeches on Scotch questions, in which
he is, perhaps, better informed than any other man in the House. He is
always listened to with respect, if not with admiration, for he exhibits
a mastery of details, and a perfect apprehension of the subject in hand,
which enables him to speak with effect, when others, who possess greater
oratorical powers, would be liable to "put their foot in it." Indeed,
Mr. Gordon is not an orator, in any sense of the term. His legal
training at the Scotch bar has stunted the development of his rhetorical
gifts. In pleading before a judge or a jury he seeks to influence their
judgments rather than their hearts, and this tendency is to a greater or
less extent characteristic of all good Scotch lawyers, although it is
fatal to those nicely rounded periods and soul-stirring appeals to the
imagination and emotional faculties, that tell so forcibly upon an
English jury. It is disappointing to listen to Mr. Gordon for the first
time. His appearance is sufficiently _distingué_, for he is tall of
stature, and he has a decidedly intellectual cast of countenance. But
when he commences to speak there is an almost painful absence of
embellishment or emotional feeling; his language is severely practical
and argumentative; but his logic is unimpeachable, and he can summon to
his aid no end of hard and dry, albeit telling, facts--
"Chiels that winna ding."
During the session of 1868, while he held the office of Lord Advocate,
Mr. Gordon passed the Scotch Reform Bill, and it is to his efforts that
the Universities of Scotland are indebted for direct Parliamentary
representation. It seems, therefore, consistent with the fitness of
things that a constituency which he himself had been the means of
creating should become his own. To Mr. Gordon we are also indebted for
the Titles to Land Act, passed during the session of 1868, by which the
whole conveyancing system of Scotland has been consolidated, and placed
on a more satisfactory footing. In the same year he succeeded in passing
the Writs Registration Bill, which has affected beneficially the whole
of the land system of Scotland. A bill for the purpose of amending the
Feudal System of Scotland was introduced during the session of 1870, by
Mr. Gordon, but although it was hailed with every symptom of approbation
and encouragement by the leading men of the country, it had ultimately
to be withdrawn. The same fate was reserved for a bill to abolish the
feudal system altogether, which was brought in by Mr. Young, the present
Lord Advocate of Scotland.
In ecclesiastical matters, no less than in matters political, Mr. Gordon
has taken a conspicuous part. He has often appeared at the bar of the
General Assembly of the Established Church of Scotland, of which he has
always been a devoted adherent, both in a professional and in a private
capacity. In the General Assembly of 1870, he seconded Dr. Pirie's
motion against the Law of Patronage in a speech of great argumentative
power, and on the same and other occasions he has spoken effectively on
behalf of union with other Presbyterian Churches, his leading
ecclesiastical idea being in favour of the reconstruction of the
National Church on such a basis as will enable her to co-operate and
unite with other Churches, and thereby emphatically make her what she
professes to be. His disposition is of a most kindly and generous
tendency. He practises charity and toleration towards all mankind. At
the time of the Disruption, he used all his influence with the late Lord
Justice-Clerk with a view of maintaining intact the position and
privileges of the parish schoolmasters, who had elected to leave the
establishment and become members of the Free Church. He strongly urged
upon the leaders of the Establishment that a measure so harsh as this,
besides being unduly severe upon the teachers, could not benefit the
Church of Scotland, and would only raise up enemies against her. This is
only one of many proofs of his broad humanity that might be adduced.
It is almost unnecessary to remark that Mr. Gordon enjoys in a high
degree the confidence and esteem of the political party with whom he
acts. We happen to know that the present Earl of Derby values his
counsel and co-operation very highly, and as for Mr. Disraeli he has
long made it a principle to consult Mr. Gordon on questions specially
affecting Scotland. He is regarded as a decidedly safe man. Prudent and
unassuming, he never seeks to catch the eye of the Speaker unless he has
something of importance to say, and hence he is listened to by both his
own and the opposite parties with attention and deference. In the
discussions that have taken place during the present session on the
Scotch Education Bill, he has proposed several amendments all tending in
the same direction--namely, that of preserving the element of religious
teaching in our national schools. He is also strongly in favour of
maintaining a high curriculum, and, as far as possible, improving the
status and efficiency of the teachers.
We may add, in conclusion, that Mr. Gordon is a Queen's Counsel, and he
has been rewarded for his splendid legal and literary acquirements with
the degree of LL.D. by Edinburgh University. He is likewise Chancellor's
Assessor for Edinburgh University, an office of considerable honour, and
in virtue of which he is a member of the University Court. Mr. Gordon
has taken a lively interest in the Volunteer movement, and at the
present time he holds the commission of Lieut.-Colonel in the Queen's
City of Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Brigade.
[Transcriber's Note: The text has been regularised so that "Mr", "Dr"
and "Mrs" always have a period after. Other errors in the original that
have been corrected are listed below:
Page 13: savans changed to savants - 'listened to by the savants'
Page 20: Pall Mall Gazeite changed to Pall Mall Gazette - 'about which
the _Pall Mall Gazette_'
Page 24: á priori changed to à priori
Page 25: missing quotation mark added - 'Non incompatibles;"'
gout changed to goût
Page 26: Bysche changed to Bysshe - 'Percy Bysshe Shelley'
Page 27: the the changed to the - 'on the banks of Lake Windermere.'
Page 28: 'early party of the nineteeth century' changed to 'early part
of the nineteenth century'
Page 29: èlite to élite
Page 31: mor changed to more - 'more than a match'
Page 32: improssed changed to impressed - 'favourably impressed'
act changed to acting - 'while acting as'
Page 33: suavitor changed to suaviter
Page 34: jurisprodence changed to jurisprudence
Page 40: transcendant changed to transcendent
Page 43: eldst changed to eldest
Page 46: requsition changed to requisition
Page 55: furtheir changed to further
Page 64: In coure changed to In course
Page 74: Halfax changed to Halifax
Page 75: couse changed to course
Page 85: practitical changed to practical
Page 89: Philsophy changed to Philosophy
Page 106: parcular changed to particular
Page 113: formally changed to formerly
Page 114: phreno-magetism changed to phreno-magnetism
Page 120: missing quotation mark added - 'flowed like eloquence."'
Page 126: be be acknowledged changed to be acknowledged
Page 133: ready!' changed to ready!"
glimses changed to glimpses
Page 135: prelininary changed to preliminary
Page 136: aggregtae changed to aggregate
Page 139: herefore changed to therefore
Page 141: confréré changed to confrère
Page 142: an an author changed to an author
been been published changed to been published
Page 143: Blanehard changed to Blanchard
Page 148: Transatlanque changed to Transatlantique
Brittannia changed to Britannia
Page 160: causus belli changed to casus belli
Page 170: knew changed to know
Page 172: M Ewen changed to M'Ewen
Page 176: Collosians changed to Colossians
Page 179: but the changed to but they
Page 181: Academy' changed to Academy's
Page 184: Depot changed to Depôt
depot changed to depôt
Page 187: depot changed to depôt
Page 188: depot changed to depôt
Page 191: discoved changed to discovered
Page 192: rotton changed to rotten
]
*** End of this Doctrine Publishing Corporation Digital Book "Western Worthies - A Gallery of Biographical and Critical Sketches of West - of Scotland Celebrities" ***
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